A disgraced former cop flinched and tried to hide from news cameras outside a Manhattan courtroom today, after learning that DNA has apparently given the lie to his claim that he didn’t have sex with a 14-year-old runaway.
Darrin Nemelc, 44, of Washington Heights, had told cops that all he’d done was let the “little white girl” use his bathroom after finding her acting “spaced out” in the park near his Riverside Drive home just after midnight on New Year’s Day.
“She was acting weird and spaced out and was crying,” he told cops. “She then asked me to use my bathroom which she did,” he told cops, claiming that after she used his bathroom, “She started acting weird and unstable again and left.”
But in announcing his indictment on charges of rape, criminal sex act and and sex abuse, Manhattan prosecutors today said Nemelc’s DNA has been found on the girl’s body.
Nemelc had come to court with his two daughters, his wife of 13 years, an aunt, and his mother-in-law; he pleaded not guilty before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel.
Assistant District Attorney Rena Paul cited the new indictment and DNA evidence in unsuccessfully asking the judge to hike Nemelc’s bail to $500,000 from the current $100,000.
“His statements (to police) were a denial of contact with this person,” Paul said. “DNA shows that’s not true.”
Defense lawyer Jeff Chabrowe said prosecutors have raised the possibility of treating the case as a statutory, not forcible, rape and reducing the charges to a non-violent felony.
Nemelc, who served as a cop seven years before quitting in 1999, is now a transit worker, his lawyer said. He returns to court June 23.