By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Jurors in the trial of two police officers accused of rape heard a 911 call prosecutors suggest was made by the cops themselves to buy them time the night they allegedly raped a drunk East Village woman.
The jury on Monday heard a suspicious 911 call in which a man reported that a homeless person was passed out on the same East 13th Street block as the alleged rape victim's apartment.
Prosecutors contend that the call reporting the homeless man was made by the officers on trial, Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, so that they could continue to visit the apartment of the woman they are accused of raping on Dec. 7, 2008. Earlier that night, Moreno and Mata had escorted the woman into her apartment after a cabbie asked for police help because she was too drunk to get out of the cab on her own.
Moreno and Mata were assigned to deal with the report of the homeless man, just as they knew they would be, prosecutors suggested.
"It's a homeless guy in the hallway. He's just sleeping there in the hallway," said the 911 caller, a male who identified himself as "John Edward."
The caller claimed he was making the report because the man was in front of his girlfriend's building and he was "afraid she's going to get scared." When asked for a call back number by the 911 dispatcher, the caller said he didn't have one because he was Canadian.
He described the "sleeping and snoring" homeless man as smelly, but said he was not bothering anyone — just blocking the building's entry way.
The call was made from a pay phone in the vicinity of where the officers were at the time, prosecutors said.
While the officers were supposedly responding to the call of the homeless man, about 2 a.m., security video shows them entering the 27-year-old alleged victim's apartment for the second time that night.
The NYPD dispatcher on duty, Eddie Rodriguez, believed that after dealing with the report of the homeless man, the pair then responded to a theft and then took a meal break, the dispatcher testified Monday.
But again, video taken during the time the officers were supposedly working on the theft report and then eating — during the 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. hours — shows they were really at the woman's apartment building.
At one point they radioed in that the homeless situation was resolved, but no details were given, Rodriguez testified.
Lawyers for Moreno would not comment on the calls after court on Tuesday.
Moreno is accused of raping the alleged victim while Mata allegedly stood guard at the apartment.
The trial will resume Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court. The alleged victim is expected to testify.
