Franklin Mata Sentenced To Two Months For Official Misconduct After Being Acquitted Of Rape
NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City police officer was sentenced to two months in jail on a misconduct conviction Wednesday after he and his partner were acquitted of raping a woman they were summoned to help.
Franklin Mata also was sentenced Wednesday to three years' probation. However, the sentence is stayed until Sept. 12 while he appeals.
"I have endured plenty during this time," said Mata, his voice so shaky with emotion that his words were sometimes indistinguishable. "I have lost my job, my name ... and I've lost respect from the people of New York City."
"I have learned from this experience, sir. I ask that you hear me and understand that I never meant for anybody to get hurt that night," he told the judge.
Ex-partner Kenneth Moreno was sentenced Monday to a year in jail. He also is free during a planned appeal.
State Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro said he didn't see Mata's participation in the crime as equivalent to Moreno's.
Their misdemeanor misconduct convictions were for repeatedly returning to the accuser's apartment while telling dispatchers they were elsewhere.
The Police Department fired both Mata, 29, and Moreno, 43, within hours of the May verdict, which ignited criticism from women's rights activists and some city councilwomen who said it spotlighted what they consider unfair attitudes toward women who bring sexual assault complaints.
The two were called to help the drunken woman get out of a cab in December 2008.
Mata wasn't accused of sexually assaulting the woman himself, but prosecutors said he stood watch while Moreno was with the woman. Mata had been a police officer for about five years, Moreno for about 17. Both were charged with rape, burglary and other counts and acquitted of everything except official misconduct.
During their trial, Mata said he couldn't be sure what had happened while his partner and the woman were alone in her bedroom. But, he told jurors, "Ken wouldn't do something like that."
"You certainly drew the short straw when you got him as your partner," the judge told Mata at sentencing. "But you still continued to toe the line and carry your partner's bags, for some reason."
"All, he had to do was stand up and say no" to what Moreno was doing," Assistant District Attorney Randolph Clarke Jr. said.
"He didn't have to turn in his partner ... All he had to do was turn to him and say that one word, 'No.' but he didn't. He went along for the ride. He enabled Moreno."
"Mata testified to a story that could be characterized as: Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. In fact, Mata placed himself as conveniently sleeping."
The officers insisted that they took the woman's apartment keys and returned three times within four hours after the initial call only to help her, saying she had asked them to check up on her. Moreno — who admitted making a bogus 911 call about a sleeping homeless person to provide a pretext for one of the visits — said he was driven to try to befriend the woman and give her advice about drinking because he'd had an alcohol problem himself.
The woman acknowledged her recollections of the night were intermittent. But she told jurors she vividly remembered being raped, and she was certain her attacker was an officer because of other memories, such as hearing police radio chatter and hearing the same male voice at different points, once asking whether she wanted him to stay in her bedroom.
"I couldn't believe that two officers who had been called to help me had, instead, raped me," the woman testified at the trial.
Days after her encounter with the officers, she confronted Moreno at his stationhouse and secretly recorded his response. He repeatedly denied they'd had sex but also said "yes" twice when she asked whether he'd used a condom. Moreno told jurors he was trying to keep her from making trouble for him at work.
No DNA evidence incriminated the officers, and expert witnesses disagreed about whether an internal mark on the woman could be seen as evidence of a sexual assault.
Now a 29-year-old fashion product developer in California, the woman has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the city over the incident.
The Associated Press doesn't identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes unless they publicly identify themselves or agree to be named.
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First Posted: 08/10/11 12:50 PM ET Updated: 10/10/11 06:12 AM ET