May 4, 2009 8:00 pm US/Eastern
Sources: Alleged NYPD Rape Officers Faked 911 Call
Say Nearby Moreno & Mata Made Phony Call So That They'd Be Ones Sent To Assault Victim's Building
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
There was more damaging information released Monday in the case of two NYPD officers charged with raping a woman.
Sources told CBS 2 HD they can prove the officers made a phony 911 call to cover their last trip to the woman's building.
So what does this mean for women who call 911 expecting help?
More allegations are coming out against police officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, who are accused of raping a woman they were supposed to help because she was too drunk to get safely into her own apartment. Now, the officers are thought by prosecutors to have made a phony 911 call from a pay phone on the corner of First and 13th about a disturbance that did not exist at a building on East 13th street.
Knowing that because they were closest officers to the scene, the dispatcher would send them, it's alleged, to check it out. But the district attorney will charge that the motive was really to go back into the woman's building nearby and rape her.
"It's a pretty egregious incident, right? To have police officers, who are supposed to be the people helping, to do this?" said Harriet Lessel of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault. "But it's certainly not something that the majority of police officers, male police officers, are gonna do."
Lessel's words convey the dichotomy about police women that CBS 2 HD talked to feel.
"I just do have second thoughts about the police in general, unfortunately, male or female," said Indira Wiegand of the East Village.
Actually, when police respond to a 911 call, women have a choice, according to a police spokesman: They can ask for a female officer. The officers who arrive will then call for a supervisor, like a sergeant, and that supervisor will then decide if a female officer is needed.
However, police routinely assign a female detective in rape cases. It should be noted, though, that the initial call in this case was simply to help a drunken woman, and not a rape.
Most of the women that CBS 2 HD talked to say while this incident ruptures their faith in police somewhat, overall, they still have to trust the police.
Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, said crimes like this committed by officers should be treated more severely than if done by civilians.
She said officers can gain access to buildings without being questioned.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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