Kenneth Moreno, NYPD Officer Accused Of Rape, Breaks Down On Stand

Says On Tape He Wore Condom, But To Jury 'It Wasn't Like That'

May 10, 2011 11:55 PM

Police officer Ken Moreno, left, exits the courtroom at State Supreme court with his attorney Joe Tacopina, Monday, May 9, 2011, in New York. (credit: AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)

Reporting Irene Cornell

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — New York City police officer Kenneth Moreno, accused of raping an intoxicated woman in her Village apartment after helping her to get home, returned to the stand Tuesday for cross-examination.

WCBS 880′s Irene Cornell: The Prosecution Seized On The Phony 911 Call

The focus was on the conversation the alleged rape victim had with Officer Moreno and secretly recorded for the district attorney outside the 9th Precinct, reports CBS 2′s Pablo Guzman.

Assistant District Attorney Coleen Balbert asked, “She said to you, ‘You raped me,’ right?”

Moreno’s answer: “She didn’t say, ‘You raped me.’ She said, ‘You took advantage of me.’”

Balbert: “And she said, ‘Did you wear a condom?’ And, ‘You threw me on the bed?’ And, ‘When I woke up, you were on top of me?’ You didn’t think she was accusing you of rape?!”

Moreno: “I don’t know why. I didn’t think she was accusing me of rape.”

Moreno said he felt pressured when she confronted him at the precinct. On the tape, she asks if she should be worried about getting a sexually transmitted disease. Moreno responds, “Ma’am, nothing like that even came close to happening.”

At one point on the tape, however, Moreno said he used a condom but he explained to the jury, “I told her that to please her, I wanted it to stop. It wasn’t like that what she said.”

“Nothing happened, there was no sexual activity between us,” Moreno told the jury.

He also told the jury he was confused.

“When I left her that night she was fine. I called and everything was okay. She said she didn’t remember. I didn’t know if she was playing games,” he said.

Moreno’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, asked, “How come you didn’t go inside and tell your supervisor there’s some woman outside, she’s making these accusations?”

Moreno then broke out in tears.

“If I had done that, Internal Affairs would have opened a file. I would’ve risked my pension. And look where I’m at now! Look where I’m at now! Two and a half years later!”

Ed Mandery, the attorney for Moreno’s partner, Officer Franklin Mata, said Moreno acquitted himself well Tuesday.

“I think you get to see the character of the man. And it takes what’s been demonized in the media and you put a face to it. And I think you see the manner of the man and who the person is. I think it’s absolutely helpful,” Mandery told CBS 2′s Hazel Sanchez.

Moreno denied having any sex with the woman but said he did lie down on the bed with her as she was falling asleep.

“He made his mistakes that night. He acknowledged that. But he did not commit a crime,” Tacopina said.

Mandery said the tape is not the silver bullet confession prosecutors claim it is.

“Actually, I don’t feel it’s damaging at all if you listen to that recording. You hear Officer Moreno several times saying you’re asking me to admit to something I didn’t do. And I think the jury gets that,” Mandery said.

1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reports: Moreno Says He Felt Pressured

In Moreno’s version of events on Monday, he was the comforter, a calming presence to a woman who was drunk, troubled, and according to the officer, coming onto him the night she claims she was raped.

“She told me to come over to the bed. I said, ‘I’m good where I’m at.’ She walks up to me. I could see she was wearing a pink bra,” Moreno testified on Monday.

Moreno told jurors he is a recovering alcoholic and bonded with the woman that night, holding her as she lay throwing up and even singing to her Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.”

“She grabbed my hand and put it on her stomach area. She started rubbing her buttock area around my groin area,” he said. “I kind of pushed her away. I said, ‘there’s another time for this.’ She looked at me. I held her on the shoulders and said, ‘we’re not doing this.’ She got upset.”

Moreno admitted to making a fake 911 call so he and Mata could return to the woman’s East Village apartment three more times that night, as seen in surveillance video.

He admitted to crossing the line while on-duty and in uniform, but when asked by his attorney if he raped the woman, Moreno answered “No.”

“It’s a very dramatic case. His life is on the line. Darn right it’s dramatic,” said Tacopina.

Whom do you believe? Leave a comment below…

Kenneth Moreno, NYPD Officer Accused Of Rape, Breaks Down On Stand

azad

I live in really ‘not good’ neighborhood in The Bronx. During the past year, I made several 911 calls to report incident such as, ‘Kids fighting/shouting on the street at the middle of night’, Innocent passer by getting robbed and beaten. Unfortunately cops rarely showed up on time. If I made follow up call after an hour or two to see what is the status or how far the cops are? 911 operators would say, cops have other emergency to take of first. Ken Moreno’s’ case is an example of cops having other emergencies which are much more severe than a street fights or robbery!!!!
GREG

YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THIS COPS DEFENSE COUNSEL COULD NOT COME UP WITH A BETTER STIORY THAN THIS. HE RETURNED TO THE APARTMENT THREE TIMES AND MADE FAKE 911 CALLS.. WHAT POSSIBL REASON COULD HE HAVE TO RETURN TO SEE HER THREE TIIMES. THIS GUY AND HIS PARTNER ARE JUST BIG LIARS AND SHOULD BE CONVICTED BY A JURY. THIESE COPS ARE SUPPOSE TO PROTECT US…. COME ON NOW….

Gregg

Absolutly guilty. HANG-UM HIGH. If they get off, it will be a travesty of justice !
Ned Martinez

Please have faith in the system. It may not be perfect but I can guarantee you that they will be going to prison for a long time.

Rodin

“Ignorante” is mild. “Estúpido” is more like it. Maybe “imbécil” is even better. And that’s just about you.

Taking advantage of an under the influence incompetent who cannot consciously give consent IS RAPE.

‘Ele-PH-ante’ should be “ele-F-ante”. Tras de idiota, IGNORANTE.

See, we speak the same language. We understand each other? And Moreno and his buddy Mata.

IgnoranteElephante

That you speak Spanish is no surprise, but you still haven’t answered my question. You say, “even if true,” there is no excuse for rape and you mumble something about “blame the victim.” I proposed an inquiry that obviously went above your thick head, but I will repose it for the sake of the group. If, as you postulated, the cops’ story is true, there would be no rape or a victim to blame, just two innocent men. Innocent is exactly what these two men are until proven guilty by a seated jury of their pairs, and not some rabble rouser like you. Thus, if they are telling the truth, they shouldn’t be shamed by you or our criminal justice system. I find you statement that “there is no excuse for rape” elementry beyond all concern. No one on this board insinuated that and neither of the two officers attempted to justify a rape. They merely denied it. Again, the jury will judge these men. Finally, I don’t speak the same language as you; I speak English. My name is not derivative of any Spanish word.

karlson

To gnoranteElephante – Even if the jury were to “find” these two not guilty, rest assured that the NYPD will and will toss them both on their butts.

They called in a false report and that’s going to hang them. Also they weren’t where they were supposed to be and there are surely more departmental charges awaiting. The book will be thrown at them by NYPD – REST ASSURED OF THAT! Internal affairs has no sense of humor and is totally unforgiving.

IgnoranteElephante

Rodin, will you give us some more of your insightful observations that are on par with your earlier “there’s no excuse for rape” comment? How about “Crime is bad”? Maybe, “summer is warm” and “winter is cold.” “Explosives are dangerous” or “Cardiac arrest is bad.”

Rodin

IgnoranteElephante:
“Plus, rumor has it she’s Oriental. Need I say more?”
“Finally, I don’t speak the same language as you; I speak English. My name is not derivative of any Spanish word.”

How about ‘You are a bigot and a racist and prejudiced against Asians, especially women.”

“How about “I speak at least one more language than you do?”

How about “Ignorance is bliss?”

Is that insightful enough?
Rodin

Oh:

How about “IgnoranteElephante is sexist”?

How about “IgnoranteElephante is pretentious and tries to write in a language he can’t spell”?

How about “IgnoranteElephante is the Ugly American redux”?

How about “IgnoranteElephante ES UN IGNORANTE”?

Enough insight?
IgnoranteElephante

How about Rodin’s a coward who hides behind an untraceable screen name and insults people?

How about Rodin has zero command of the English language, so when he says he speaks one more language than I, he is misinforming people?

How about Rodin makes baseless accusations in that I never said a negative thing about Orientals or Women, and never insinuated this woman deserved to be raped?

How about Rodin is UnAmerican in that he feels the accused do not enjoy the presumption of innocence in this country or the rights afforded by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution?

How about Rodin this is not a banana boat republic which you may be accustomed and those accused are afforded a plethora of rights?

How about Rodin has the reading comprehension skills of a child in that he still has not fully grasped my comment yesterday which asked him to explain how these officer’s, who are denying raping this women, are justifying rape or blaming the victim?

How about, Rodin, wouldn’t you agree that an accused should be afforded to defend horrific charges anyway he sees fit?

How about Rodin’s a bully who enjoys picking on those with differing points of view than he?

How about Rodin is too simplistic to see that cuddling with someone, lying to go back and see her, and making excuses may be police misconduct worthy of being terminated, but do not in and of themselves amount to rape?

How about nothing I said in any comment said was racist or sexist and Rodin is just doing what people have done since time immemorial, and playing the race card because he cannot reason through an adult discussion without accusing anyone who disagrees with him of being racist?

How about Rodin must be joking when he says simplistic truisms that are beyond dispute like “rape is inexcusable” when no one—not I or the cops on trial—ever tried to say it was?

How about if Rodin were ever accused of a crime, which judging by his attitude, is not at all unlikely and may have happened already in the past, I would wager that he would want to be considered innocent to proven guilty, but his comments here only bespeak of his blatantly hypocritical way of thinking?

How about if these were just two ordinary Hispanic males that were not cops accused of raping this women, I would place another wager that Rodin would not be calling for their heads and insinuating that their defenses were justifying rape?
Rodin

GOTCHA!

“I don’t care what anybody says about me as long as it isn’t true.”
~ DOROTHY PARKER

Bye.

IgnoranteElephante

“GOTCHA”? You didn’t get me. Evertything that I said was true, demonstrated to be so by your own baseless accusations and comments.

RS

Lying down with her??? Above the call of duty Mr. Moreno. Seeing she get to her apartment safe was good enough. She’s a grown woman, intoxicated or not. You should have left and certainly NOT have come back 3 times. That tells a story of an obsessed cop maybe up to no good.
joke

She must have forced him to do the nasty !
DIVERSITY = DEATH

This cop looks like he eats RATS !!!!

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Bobby Santiago

Yes he went back to her apartment just to see how she
was doing 3 times using a lie to his officers and NYPD dispatchers and then sang to her,softly and became an expert from AA.

WOW ! what a kind and loving cop, give him the Nobel prize.
Bob W.

Tragic for all parties involved! Regardless of what happens, please lets not forget that, overall, police officers help people a lot more than they hurt them.

heidi

Umm, yeah, ok, whatever – tell that to Amidou Diallo – oh, that’s right, you can’t…because he’s dead. Police shot him dead because he was reaching for – HIS ID!

Sharon Needles

Oh yeah…he did it – he saw an opportunity in this drunk lady and jumped at it. Not that she put up much of a fight…she took one look at this hot Latin cop and grabbed for the brass ring. They’re both guilty…and they’re both pigs. Stop wasting the court’s valuable time, take responsibility for what you did, learn your lessons and move on…

edlo

that , makes more sense now..

JFK

If these guys don’t go to prison the justice system is going to have one huge nightmare from public outcry. These two are guilty as sin. The explanations they are giving is like a 3 year old caught with her/his hand in the cookie jar. It just is not coming close to leaving reasonable doubt. In fact, it leaves not doubt. GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY……

Omayra

WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE????

chris

they went to her house 3 more times. that is the evidence
niklu

You must be a cop…. what a stupid comment
badman

at least we have hard evidence that Omayra is a BIG FAT IDIOT

joanl mcgrath

JFK, do you think they are going to give him jail time? he is going to get a vacation with pay, 3 times how bad did he think she was if it took 3 visits to check on her , maybe an ambulance would have been a better call.

David Ruffin

Just like the William Kennedy Smith rape trial of 20 years ago, the victim is drunk and makes accusations, it is IMPOSSIBLE to figure out exactly what happened and when. These cops are going to be found NOT GUILTY because the jury will be unable to convict them beyone a reasonable doubt.

Omayra

David I agree with you. In America a person is innocent until PROVEN guilty. There is no hair or DNA evidence. I motive is MONEY. It is impossible to figure out what happened!!!!

niklu

Yes, he went back to her place 3 time to cuddle,.., he was very concerned about her….. right.
And the lookout cop didn’t notice how good looking she was, he took a nap on her couch and didn’t hear anything while his partner was in her bedroom.
Are you for real!
IgnoranteElephante

Plus, rumor has it she’s Oriental. Need I say more?
lenny

why u so stoopid?
IgnoranteElephante

lenny, your comment speaks volumes about your stupidity or should I say “stoopidity.”
Rodin

EleFante, ” your comment speaks volumes about your stupidity.”

“…she’s Oriental. Need I say more?” speaks volumes about your racism and bigotry.”

Your prejudices aside, “Oriental” is as pejorative to Asians as N____r is to an African American or the out-of-use “Sp_ k” to a Latino and you know it. That’s why you used it.

Next time someone says something about Hispanics, which I suspect you are, think about it.

jtorres

William Kennedy Smith was not a police officer. Mr. Smith was not video taped entering the woman’s building 4 times. Mr. Smith did not have a partner to sink him on the stand and finally, Mr. Smith was smart enough to not take the stand himself so he wouldn’t be crucified by the prosecutor. William Kennedy Smith was rich enough to hire a lawyer that got him off. Those are all the differences. You can’t compare the two trials

edy

These dirt bags are lying through their teeth…GUILTY, GUILTY,GUILTY and the lawyer representing them?….forgetaboutit
styles

They are professional liars: they would ask of us to suspend reality, and by into their story. No different than the lies they tell when shooting black people, and juries set them free. Facing 25 years, what else can we expect. however, they are both done as cops.
liwingnut

This is yet another example why people do not trust cops……
DIIVERSITY = DEATH

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skalley 99

That woman has to be extremely agile if as the officer says,”while she was trying to take off my vest, she was rubbing her buttocks against my groin”.
Jay Hall

If this cop felt thaat this woman really was coming on to him and that someone needed to check up on her, why not send another female cop to go back to the apt? 3 times they went back? Come on. And his partner just happened to fall asleep when this woman was being “comforted”?? It’s all a crock of BS. To me NYPD does not mean to serve and protect. It means to take advatage and violate. These 2 will walk just like all the others. Having an NYPD badge is the equivalent of a get out of jail free card.

Anne Hill

the cops know from years of experience how to work the system – how to make what happened unclear. they think it makes them smart. good for her for fighting & following through. he might walk because “probable” is not “beyond a reasonable doubt” but his life is forever changed and he will not be put back out into society as an officer, so i hope it was worth it.
jtorres

Ever hear of Robert Livoti? He’s doing 15 years for killing a young man in The Bronx and after threatening the life of a judge. In open court. On the record. Among other things.

Joseph Didonato

Even Joseph Tacopina knows this guy is guilty as sin. She was 17, disgusting!

IgnoranteElephante

She was 27

nyc

Why didn’t they call a friend of hers or take her to the hospital if they wanted to help her so much and why didn’t the police send a women cop knowing it was a girl totally drunk ? They are sooo guilty ! Sad.

ed

let s hope the jury doesn’t let this guy walk. Only takes one idiot for him to walk.

Rodin

Textbook lame the victim. Disgusting. EVEN IF TRUE, there is NO excuse for RAPE.

IgnoranteElephante

What do you mean even if true, it is disgusting? If his testimony is true, there is no rape, and nothing to blame on anyone.

Rodin

“Ignorante” is mild. Of course, you’re discribing yourself. I’ll reserve harsher words for our two “officers of the law.”

Wrong. Taking advantage of a woman under the influence who cannot consciously give consent IS RAPE. By a cop, uncoscionable and contemptible!

BTW, ‘Ele-PH-ante’ should be “ele-F-ante”.

We speak the same language, the same as Macho Moreno and accomplice Mata.

Peter

send this cop up the river and tell him to pack some ky jelly !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Walter S. Fortune

Unfortunately in today’s society morality, honesty, and “doing the right thing” is manifest in the behavior and actions of law enforcement officers only when it is convenient and will further serve to “feather their nest”. The level of personal corruption is at an all time high, leaving those few truly honest and professional members of law enforcement to fend for themselves. most people i know are sadly disillusioned and very mistrustful of either police or firefighters being called into their homes. One only needs to recall the rampant thievery commonplace in the World Trade Center after 9/11 to confirm why they cannot be trusted. Sad but true.
Ken J H

These “officers” returned at least three times. They placed a fake 911 call and falsified their reports to cover their tracks. They have no answer for why they kept returning, but the “Lookout” officer, on the stand says “Maybe they had a rapport.” These are people who believe the badge places them above the law and any questioning. In their minds, the crime is not accepting their stories no matter how flawed. Personally, I don’t think this is the first time they’ve done this. Ii understand backing up your partner to hold onto a good bust. But when it’s to cover wrongdoing, ALL cops have to stand up and say “NO!” The look out should have put a stop to it when Moreno wanted to make the false 911 call. For the sake of the City, the Force and Women they must be found guilty.
jocken

well, you’re a police officer. you’re there to protect people not to take advantage of that authority, thats what you have pledge for behind that police office’s badge . . .
Bill W

This cop really thinks he’s above the law. Gives all cops a bad name. He didn’t commit a crime ? He admitted to making a fake 911 call on the stand, thats not a crime ? If this guy is found not guilty all police will be hurt, and he gets back pay no wonder we are in bad shape

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Kenneth Moreno, NYPD Officer Accused Of Rape, Breaks Down On Stand

Says On Tape He Wore Condom, But To Jury 'It Wasn't Like That'

May 10, 2011 11:55 PM

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