The former East Village woman who accused two city cops of rape spoke out Tuesday, saying “my heart broke” when a jury acquitted them of a sexual assault rap.
“I have waited two and half years for closure that will now never come,” the now 29-year-old accuser said in a statement.
“Hearing that verdict brought me to my knees; it brought me back to my bedroom on that awful night when my world was turned upside down by the actions of two police officers who were sent there to protect, but instead took advantage of their authority and broke the law.”
READ THE VICTIM’S FULL STATEMENT
The fashion executive, who now lives in San Francisco, was referring to Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, who were fired immediately after the jury last week acquitted them of rape but found them guitly of official misconduct.
“Everything they say about the difficulties of a rape trial is sadly true,” she wrote.
“One’s word is not enough in these days of CSI and DNA. Even if people believe you, you are tested beyond what any crime victim should have to endure.”
The accuser said she was “utterly” disheartened at being forced to answer “personal questions about your body, your intimate life and your social life simply because you dare to come forward.”
The woman praised Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner for quickly canning the cops and yanking their pensions. She noted that “not a single officer in uniform sat behind the defendants when I testified.”
“That speaks volumes,” she wrote.
She also heaped praise on the prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, singling out Coleen Balbert, Edward Tacchi, Randolph Clarke and Dianne Spence.
“I cry as I write this because I know they are hurting just like me,” she wrote. “They gave me a voice after a night when I had none.”
The accuser thanked the many people in New York and around the country who spoke up “in my honor.”
“I am overwhelmed by your support,” she wrote. “I want you to know that if I could I would shake your hand, I would hug you, and I hear you. For me, public opinion will be the ultimate verdict.”
Mata and Moreno could still face up to two years in jail when they are sentenced on June 28.
Juror interviewed after the verdict was announced said the accuser was “really believable” but there was no DNA to back up her claim of rape.
They said her testimony was tainted by her admission that she was bombed and blacking out when she encountered the cops in December 2008.
The jury verdict came after a six week trial during which prosecutors insisted Moreno brutally raped the woman while Mata stood lookout.
Moreno later called the woman a liar and stuck to his story that he and Mata visited her apartment three times after the initial encounter to help her through a bender.
