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"Gunpoint Rape" Cop Lawyer Admits His Client Committed "An Unforgivable Crime"
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 16, 2012
Modified Oct 12, 2017
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 16, 2012
Modified Oct 12, 2017
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The trial for Michael Pena, a 27-year-old police officer who is accused of raping a schoolteacher at gunpoint while off-duty in Manhattan last August, began yesterday. While Pena had previously implied that it was a consensual encounter—and that he was just "cheating" on his girlfriend—his lawyer took a different strategy in his opening statements: he admitted his client deserved to go to jail. “He did in fact assault her,” defense attorney Ephraim Savitt told jurors. “All those things the People will be able to prove, because they happened...This was a terrible crime, an unforgivable crime, but it does not rise to the level of the [rape] charges."
Pena is charged with rape, committing a criminal sexual act and predatory sexual assault. Savitt argued that DNA evidence and eyewitness accounts would not prove that his client had penetrated the victim, who was on her way to start a new job as a teacher that morning. “Should he do jail time? The answer is yes,” Savitt told reporters outside court. “But he shouldn’t do 10-to-life.”
In his opening statements, prosecutor Evan Krutoy told the jury that Pena, who has a fiance, was partying with strippers at a Washington Heights restaurant hours before the attack on August 20th—Savitt confirmed it, saying, "This wasn't karaoke night." After he left the club, he started texting women in his phone, hitting on waitresses, and even trying to call escorts. All of which Savitt admitted to reporters outside court: "Is he interested in girls? Yes, he's interested in girls. Did he start up with some of the waitresses? He did."
The 25-year-old teacher had gone to get a ride to work from her school’s principal, who had just hired her a week before, around 6 a.m. that morning. That's when Pena, who was admittedly drunk, encountered her—he asked her for directions to the subway, and when she refused to walk with him there, he took out his gun. "He had his gun in one hand and with the other he's fumbling with his zipper," Krutoy told the jury. "He keeps telling her, 'don't look at my face.'"
He took her to an alleyway where he assaulted (and possibly raped) her—when a neighbor heard the commotion, prosecutors say Pena told him, “Don’t worry, I’m almost done.” The arresting officer had previously testified about Pena's drunken state that morning: "I looked at his shield and I threw it to the ground in disgust."
Tagged
cops
drunk
gunpoint rape
inwood
manhattan
michael pena
nypd
off-duty
rape
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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