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DA Goes On Attack During NYPD Rape Trial Closing Argument

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It was prosecution's turn Tuesday to make closing arguments in the trial against two police officers charged with rape.

Prosecutors said the cops were supposed to be New York City's finest, but instead were New York City's worst, reports CBS 2's Pablo Guzman.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Coleen Balbert, the lead prosecutor, tried to bring down Officer Kenneth Moreno and Officer Franklin Mata, who are charged in the rape of a drunken woman in their care. Balbert told the jury the cops lied instead of letting superiors know they really went back three times to the woman's apartment, as they were seen doing on a surveillance video.

Prosecutor Coleen Balbert told the jury Officer Mata was like the lookout in a robbery. 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reports. 

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"They lied about where they were because Officer Moreno wanted to have sex with her," Balbert said.

Though Officer Moreno is accused of the actual rape, the prosecutor did not let Officer Mata off the hook.

"And when they're inside the apartment, who is on the radio monitoring central? Officer Mata!" Balbert said.

"The equivalent of a lookout in a robbery, he's the one who could warn, 'we gotta go,' so Officer Moreno could have sex with her."

Prosecutors once again played key surveillance video showing the officers returning to the woman's apartment.  WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reports.

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Balbert said that if a juror thought, for example, that either officer lied about why they kept going back to the woman's apartment, the jury did not need to find a reason for the lie. The lie, she said, was enough. That makes a finding of guilt rather easy. Balbert said Officer Moreno left things out of his memo book because, "what Moreno did was intentional, intentionally leaving things out so no one can trace him back to her apartment."

Many observers believed the DA had to win her case in her last argument, that the prosecution had been losing ground. On Tuesday, the prosecution made a very strong comeback.

On Wednesday, the jury of 12 men and woman is expected to be charged and will then begin their deliberations.

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