“Rape cop” Kenneth Moreno threw away his badge, his gun, his job and his dignity — but his ex is the one paying the price.
Short on cash while he’s out on bail appealing his official misconduct conviction, Moreno petitioned for additional child support today – and won.
Maria Cruz now must pay her disgraced baby daddy $366 every two weeks, a huge increase over the $50 a month she had been sending Moreno, who has custody of their 14-year-old daughter.
The big boost in support is due to Cruz’s higher paying job with the MTA, where she will now earn a $60,000 salary, Support Magistrate Nicholas Palos said today.
Cruz could not hide her scorn for her laid-low ex, murmuring “piece of s—-” as she passed him in Brooklyn Family Court where the couple is fighting over custody and child support issues.
She contends Moreno is a danger to other women, while he’s still out on the streets.
“His jail time is so overdue,” said Cruz, referring to Moreno’s pending one-year sentence. “If he’s not in jail, he’ll continue to ruin the lives of young women.”
Moreno lost his job and stands to lose his freedom after repeatedly visiting and then “snuggling” with a drunk woman — she accused him of rape but he was acquitted of those charges — while he was on duty.
Moreno and fellow ex-cop Franklin Mata were convicted in May of three counts each of official misconduct for their three return visits to the woman’s East Village apartment on a December night in 2008.
The woman was so intoxicated that the pair had been dispatched to help her out of a cab, and she had tearfully testified to jurors that Moreno raped her as she lay stripped and semi-conscious on her bed.
Cruz is furious Moreno “won again” and is getting rewarded for ruining his own life. She plans to seek full custody of their daughter at a hearing tomorrow.
“I’m so frightened,” she said, anticipating the hearing. “I will be there without a lawyer. I bet he will show with the best lawyer money can buy.”
Moreno, who showed up 90 minutes late yesterday to the hearing he petitioned for, contends that although he’s unemployed, he can better provide for his little girl.
“She’s becoming a young lady,” and needs her own room, he said.
When Cruz became testy with her ex during the hearing, the magistrate interrupted her.
“Madam, when I’m speaking you remain silent,” he said.
Moreno told Palos that he had only applied for two jobs since his last Family Court appearance, complaining that no one will hire him while jail awaits should his appeal fail.
No longer earning the $84,000 a year he did as a police officer, Moreno was instructed to maintain a detailed “job-search diary.”
Enraged, Cruz produced a handout and placed it on the table where her ex sat.
“The MTA is hiring,” she said. “You might want to try that.”
Both seemed to be saving the real fireworks for tomorrow’s custody battle.
“If he goes to jail, she needs to be with me,” Cruz said, referring to their daughter.
jeremy.olshan@nypost.com