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"Gunpoint Rape Cop" Investigated For Two Other Sex Attacks
By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 25, 2011
Modified Aug 25, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 25, 2011
Modified Aug 25, 2011
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Yesterday, the 27-year-old police officer accused of raping a woman at gunpoint in Inwood last Friday was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan. But today, it was revealed that police are investigating whether officer Michael Pena was involved in two other sexual assaults in the three years he's been on the force. And, Pena was once hit with a brutality suit for assaulting and battering a perp, as well as performing a body-cavity search that went "beyond all possible bounds of decency."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly refused to give too many details about the other two sex attack claims they are currently investigating, but did say: "Investigators have picked out some (cases) that they think have the potential of having been perpetrated by this individual."
He added that the police have consulted a psychologist on the rape Pena is accused of perpetrating last week. Though they found "nothing exceptional in his background", they believed it’s “certainly possible that something happened in the past.” The brutality suit stems from an incident that occurred on Aug. 15, 2009, in Harlem, which cost the NYPD $25,000; but a police spokesman specified, "There was no admission of wrongdoing."
Pena, who works out of the 33rd Precinct, is accused of accosting a 25-year-old teacher he met on the street at 6:15 a.m. last Friday, and drunkenly forcing her to have sex with him behind an apartment building. He claimed in a jailhouse interview earlier this week that "The DA is arresting cops, indicting cops. They're trying to make an example out of me." Pena's lawyers told reporters yesterday that that their client never intended to hurt anyone: “There is absolutely no doubt that there was no intent on the part of Michael Pena to hurt anyone. There was certainly no intent to sexually abuse anybody on that day."
Tagged
brutality
cop
gunpoint
gunpoint rape cop
inwood
manhattan
michael pena
nypd
police
rape
sex assault
sex attacks
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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