Brooklyn prosecutors will be able to play at trial a potentially damning tape made by a teen girl who recorded her father allegedly apologizing for raping her and begging her not to have him arrested, a Brooklyn judge has ruled.
The girl was 14 years old when she and her stepmother reported the alleged New Year’s Day 2011 rape to NYPD cops and handed over the recording two weeks later, according to court papers.
The girl was almost trapped in a horrific Catch-22 last month when her father’s defense attorney argued that the tape shouldn’t be allowed at trial because a minor can’t consent to being recorded without the permission of a guardian.
That would have meant the girl would have had to ask a guardian — like her father or stepmother — for permission before making the recording.
But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Michael Gary disagreed.
He said in writing his decision, “There is no rational basis to reject a recording such as this because one party to the conversation is a minor.”