News: Off Duty Cop Charged with Rape
(Long Island, N.Y.) A twenty-seven-year-old off duty police officer was accused of raping a twenty-five-year-old teacher on her way to work. The officer was from the 33rd Precinct in Washington Heights and the victim teaches in a Bronx school district. The incident occurred at roughly six-thirty on Friday morning.
Reports stated that the officer was intoxicated and used his department-issued 9-mm to get the victim into an alley. He allegedly grabbed the woman behind an Inwood apartment building at Park Terrace West and West 217th Street. He had been with the police department for three years.
After asking the victim for directions to the No.1 train he flashed his weapon, which was fastened against his waistband. Reports stated that he then walked her several blocks to a deserted backyard in an alley. His police badge was later found stuffed inside his pocket.
A resident in a nearby building witnessed the assault and called for emergency services. After receiving another emergency call by a second witness, police arrived at the scene to find the suspected officer with his pants still down. The victim allegedly informed the officers that he was armed.
The officer has been suspended without pay and is being advised by legal attorneys and Internal Affairs personnel. As a result, he has yet to comment directly about the case or charges against him. He did say, however, that not everything about the incident is black and white and that there are shades of gray involved.
The suspected rapist has also claimed that the Manhattan District Attorney will attempt to punish him more severely since May’s acquittal of two New York City Police Officers. The officers were accused of raping an intoxicated woman after escorting her to her apartment from a taxi. Though the jury returned a not guilty verdict for the rape charges, the officers were found guilty of official misconduct and fired from service shortly after the verdict.
The officer accused of being involved in Friday’s rape claimed that the District Attorney has been arresting and indicting cops since the verdict and has used his case to make an example out of him. He has been held at Rikers Island facility since his arraignment on Saturday. He has been charged with first-degree rape, forcible rape, and predatory sexual assault.
He made an appearance at a visiting room wearing a gray jumpsuit and sporting a scruffy five o’clock shadow. He’s been held on a million dollars bond and $500k cash bail. Sources claimed that he has no known prior offenses and a clean record as an officer.
Reports stated that the officer’s attorney tried to portray him as a family man, and sources claimed that he recently moved in with his fiancée. Before entering the police department, he graduated Humanities High School in Manhattan. Amidst Friday’s alleged rape, the officer tossed a cell phone and his loaded gun was recovered at the scene.
