Manhattan prosecutors yesterday revealed some damaging new math in the case of two cops charged with conspiring to rape a drunken female clubgoer: The officers, they now say, actually made four on-duty visits to the semiconscious woman’s East Village apartment, not the three originally charged.
The fourth visit strengthens the case against Officer Kenneth Moreno — accused of raping the then-27-year-old fashion executive — and his alleged lookout partner, Officer Franklin Mata, prosecutors said.
The added charges include an additional burglary rap for the alleged fourth visit, plus additional misdemeanor official-misconduct charges for their alleged failure to call an ambulance to take the seriously ill woman to the hospital.
There are also added felony falsifying-business records, charging the cops were supposed to be on a meal break when they left the precinct house to make Visit 4 — an hour after the third visit — and lied in paperwork to cover their trail.
In all, the indictment against the two cops grew by 11 charges, from 15 to 26. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro set March 28 as the firm new trial date.
But questions remain as to why prosecutors announced only on the eve of the trial that there had been a fourth apartment visit, since all four visits had been recorded on surveillance videotapes that had been in the district attorney’s possession for two years.
Defense lawyers, too, had known about all four video clips early on in the process — and say they were puzzled as to why prosecutors came forward with them only now.
The prosecutors haven’t explained themselves in open court except to describe their recent scramble to reindict the officers as a way to “correct” the original indictment.
At yesterday’s brief court hearing, the judge again said they had “dropped the ball.”
Moreno’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said outside court that the new evidence helped the cops’ defense.
Prosecutors had always claimed that the rape happened on the third visit. Prosecutors, he said, now have to either totally revise their account of the events or continue insisting that the rape happened on Visit 3, making a fourth visit tough to justify.
“These two police officers came back to check on their so-called rape victim, an hour later?” Tacopina asked incredulously. “That would mean a guy who raped a woman would come back an hour later — what? To see if she’s OK?”
The two cops are clearly visible — and do not hide their faces — in all four videos, Tacopina said.
“You can read Kenneth Moreno’s shield number in those videos,” he said.