2 COPS PROBED IN RAPE By BRAD HAMILTON and REUVEN BLAU
Last updated: 3:20 am March 1, 2009 Posted: 3:00 am March 1, 2009
An NYPD patrolman has been accused of raping an intoxicated female executive after the cop and his partner responded to a 911 call from her cabdriver, who said she needed help getting up to her apartment.
The officers raced to the aid of the woman, who had vomited and was disoriented during the ride home to her East Village apartment on Dec. 7. They got her safely in the door and later returned to check on her condition, two law-enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said.
But when they came back a second time, the older of the two cops allegedly assaulted the woman, raping her while his partner stood by, the sources said.
The next day, the woman - a successful business exec who had been out on the town with a group of female colleagues - told a friend about the attack and called the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, they said.
Neither cop has been arrested, but both have been put on modified duty.
"It looks pretty bad for the cops," said an NYPD source. "It's not good for us. It's going to make all of our jobs tougher."
Paul Browne, the NYPD spokesman, would not comment on the case, but a police official confirmed that there was "an active investigation," and sources said the two cops were expected to be charged.
But the suspects' attorney, Stephen Worth, said, "The fact that there have been no arrests makes it obvious that the prosecutors have some questions about the veracity of the complainant's allegations."
The woman underwent a rape exam and investigators meticulously combed her apartment looking for evidence, sources said.
Investigators found surveillance videotape from the accuser's building at 13th Street and Avenue A, showing the officers coming and going multiple times on the night of the alleged crime.
They searched the officers' station-house lockers, where they found heroin and personal information of other women in the locker of the older cop, the sources said.
Both tested negative for illegal drugs, they said.
The two officers met with prosecutors but came with their lawyers and refused to answer questions, the sources said