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Woman Sexually Assaulted By Cop Says "There Was Nothing Sexual About It"
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 13, 2013
Modified Feb 13, 2013
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WABC 7
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 13, 2013
Modified Feb 13, 2013
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Lydia Cuomo has shown her strength and courage by going public as the woman who was raped at gunpoint by an NYPD police officer in 2011. She did so because she wants Albany to change how NY State defines rape—at this point, only vaginal penetration is considered rape. She says, "I think rape is about power, and it’s about control, and being able to speak about it, for me, gives me power over my story." And it seems like Governor Cuomo is on board with that.
Lydia Cuomo was brutally sodomized by then-Officer Michael Pena while she was getting ready to go to her first day of work as a teacher in the Bronx. However, a jury only found him guilty of sexual assault. In fact, the jury, for some reason, was unable to believe that she had been raped, even though she testified that she had been penetrated ("It hurt") and that witnesses saw the attack and much much more (some blame an idiot juror). Cuomo told WABC 7, "I knew I had been raped and I had this jury say, 'Well, it wasn't really rape, it was sexual assault.' But there was still this kind of unresolved idea that he's going to prison, but not as a rapist. And, every sort of part of my being said that was wrong because I had been raped."
A mistrial was called on the rape charges, but instead of a second trial, Pena pleaded guilty to rape and received an additional 10 years to be served concurrently with his 75-year sentence. Cuomo is still fuming about the sexual assault conviction, saying, "He raped me at the end of the day, and he’s not being called a rapist. He is a rapist, and you need to call rape, rape.... Sexual assault sounds so vague and I don’t think the word ‘sexual’ should be involved in it at all. There’s nothing sexual about it — detest, disgusting violation of someone.... You just assume that those things are rape. I don’t I’d ever thought, like, ‘Oh the sodomy, that’s not going to be rape,’ because in my mind it very clearly was."
Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas tried to get Albany to change the definition last year but, this being Albany, nothing happened. Simotas is renewing the effort this year and a spokesperson for Governor Cuomo (no relation to Lydia Cuomo) told the Daily News he supported it.
Lydia Cuomo said, "His face and his picture will forever haunt me. It's never going to be something that I'm OK seeing. And I have this opportunity to take this negative thing and make it positive, so it's definitely just something I want to continue to do."
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Albany
governor cuomo
gunpoint rape cop
lydia cuomo
rape cop
rape definition
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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