By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — No biological evidence was found to connect two police officers accused of raping a drunk woman to the scene of the alleged crime, forensic experts testified Tuesday in the officers' trial.
However, the experts did find hair and semen from three other men in the apartment of the alleged victim, according to the Daily News. The evidence that was retrieved could have been months old, the experts testified Tuesday in the trial of police officers Kenneth Moreno, 43, and Franklin Mata, 28, who face rape, official misconduct and other charges.
Moreno is accused of pulling the clothes of the incapacitated woman before "penetrating" her while Mata waited in the her living room at the East 13th Street apartment on Dec. 7, 2008. The police had been called by a concerned cab driver.
But by prosecutors own admission, there is no DNA evidence connecting Mata and Moreno to the bedroom, or any biological evidence that sex took place.
The alleged victim, a 29-year-old former employee of the Gap company, testified last week that she had last had sex in August of 2008, four to five months before she was allegedly raped.
She also testified that she had taken a shower the morning after the officers' series of visits, which is why there was no evidence that she had been raped by Moreno, prosecutors said. Prosecutors also said that if a condom had been used, it was possible no semen would have been left behind.
One expert, from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which performs DNA tests, said Tuesday that the semen found could have been there a long time.
"Semen is designed to survive," said OCME criminologist Jason Kolowski, according to the Daily News.
Another expert testified that several hairs found in the woman's apartment did not match the officers, a likely scenario because the officers had short hair at the time, the News reported.
Lawyers for the officers have argued the woman concocted the rape story to profit from a $57 million civil lawsuit against the NYPD and city. They also say she was too drunk to recall anything that may have occurred.
Testimony in the officers' trial will continue Thursday.
