CUFFED: A court officer yesterday shackles Kenneth Moreno, who lost a last-ditch appeal to stay free. (
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Disgraced ex-cop Kenneth Moreno, the lead officer in last year’s notorious “Rape Cops” trial, finally turned himself in yesterday to serve a one-year sentence for official misconduct — but not before a federal judge derided his “chutzpah” in attempting a last-ditch appeal.
“The defendant will now begin to serve his sentence, and sentence is executed,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro said in ordering that the cuffs go on.
Moreno looked angry but resigned as he was led off into protective custody at Rikers. In the audience, his beautiful, brunette ex — with whom he has been embroiled in a heated child-custody battle — watched with mixed satisfaction.
“It’s bittersweet,” Maria Cruz, a bus driver from Staten Island, told The Post. “I feel my daughter is going to be hurting for her father being away,” she said of their 16-year-old offspring.
Acquitted of on-duty rape and burglary but convicted of three counts of official misconduct, Moreno, 45, was sentenced 16 months ago but was allowed to remain free as, first, the Appellate Division and then, earlier this month, the state Court of Appeals rejected his bids to stay free.
Moreno’s jailing followed a stunning reprimand by Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan, who blasted the ex-cop’s request to remain free pending a last-ditch federal appeal.
“Mr. Moreno should go to jail like anyone else who’s been convicted and whose postconviction arguments have been denied,” Sullivan said in refusing to issue a stay.
Moreno’s appellate lawyer, Stephen Preziosi, had insisted in oral arguments yesterday that his client’s constitutional right to due process had been violated because there had been insufficient evidence for conviction.
Also, Preziosi argued, the trial judge, Carro, had erred in not issuing a curative instruction to jurors after prosecutors misinstructed jurors on the law for official misconduct.
“I have to say I don’t even think this was a close call,” the federal judge said in rejecting Preziosi’s stay request, which would have required “extraordinary circumstances.”
“Frankly, I think it took a certain amount of chutzpah to even bring it,” the judge added.
Earlier yesterday, Moreno’s former patrol partner, Franklin Mata, 30, turned himself in, wordlessly, to serve a sentence of 60 days.
Both Moreno and Mata had been acquitted in May 2011 of raping a drunken young fashion executive whom they had been dispatched to help into her East 13th Street apartment.
But both were convicted of three counts each of official misconduct — one for each time they were seen on surveillance video using the woman’s keys to re-enter her apartment.
Mata, who prosecutors said played a minor role of lookout, will likely serve 40 days with good behavior, said his lawyer, Edward Mandery.
Moreno, a married father of two who prosecutors accused as the actual rapist, will serve closer to eight months with good behavior.