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Vin Diesel Cited In "Rape Cop" Accuser Cross-Examination
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 19, 2011
Modified Sep 9, 2011
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WCBS 2
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 19, 2011
Modified Sep 9, 2011
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Yesterday defense lawyers for two cops charged with raping an inebriated woman in her East Village apartment in 2008 wrapped up their cross-examination of the alleged victim. As expected, lawyers for the accused officers, Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, tried to cast doubt on reliability of the woman's recollections of that night. For instance, did she tell one of her friends that one cop had a shaved head? The woman testified that she'd said both cops had "short hair." But in order to establish what constitutes a shaved head, the defense referenced actor Vin Diesel. Well, the assistant DA wasn't going to stand for that legerdemain.
“For the record, Vin Diesel’s actually bald," clarified assistant DA Coleen Balbert, the Times reports. Later, the woman admitted that her memory of that night was so hazy she might have been drugged, but she emphatically declared that Moreno had raped her as she was lying face down on her bed, passing in and out of drunken consciousness. Defense lawyers wanted to know why, if she remembers the two cops talking at the foot of her bed, she couldn't remember what they said. They also told the jury that she initially informed one of her friends that just one of the cops was in her bedroom.
Also testifying was the emergency room doctor who examined the unidentified woman at Beth Israel Medical Center. Burnell Brunious testified that before he administered the rape kit on the afternoon after the alleged attack, the woman was curled up in a fetal position crying. He testified that she was uninjured, except for an internal bruise to her cervix that may have been caused by an attack.
Brunious also testified that the woman had still been wearing makeup from the night before, which defense lawyers are latching on to as proof that the woman is lying about showering before going to the E.R. "The whole notion that there was no internal cleaning is very important, because they found absolutely no DNA, no semen, no saliva that links up to our clients," Defense Attorney Joseph Tacopina told NY1.
And on the day after Christmas 2008, a few weeks after the alleged rape, the woman's mother received a call at her home in California. She believes Officer Moreno tracked down her mother's number from her California driver's license, and placed the call in an attempt to intimidate her into dropping the charges. "It was a New York accent. It was a man, and he said it was the police and he asked for me," she testified yesterday. "No matter what, I believe that it was him."
Update (9/9/11): Gothamist has published a long-form feature about the Rape Cop case, written by one of the jurors. It takes you behind the scenes during their deliberations, and explains how they came to their controversial verdict. Buy it today as a PDF or on Kindle.
Tagged
east village
franklin mata
kenneth moreno
nypd
rape cop
rape cop trial
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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