By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The police officer accused of raping a woman in her East Village apartment said he felt so threatened when his alleged victim confronted him in front of his police precinct that he said whatever it took to get her to leave.
Kenneth Moreno, 43, was caught on secret audiotape admitting to his alleged victim that he used a condom during their sexual encounter at her apartment a week earlier, and that she had "nothing to worry about."
"I took that as a threat," Moreno testified Tuesday, in his second day on the stand during his rape trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. "She was going to walk into my command and tell whoever was there something that didn't happen."
He was unaware that his alleged victim was wearing a wire during their conversation on Dec. 17, 2008. And he continued to deny on the stand Tuesday that a sexual encounter with the woman ever took place.
The tape-recorded meeting, secretly arranged by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, was intended to get Moreno to admit he had sex with the 27-year-old woman during one of four trips to her apartment in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2008.
Moreno and his partner, Kenneth Mata, 29, are charged with rape and official misconduct after allegedly escorting the intoxicated woman home from a cab before Moreno raped her while Mata stood lookout.
Moreno told the jury that he was confused by the meeting outside the NYPD's 9th precinct in the East Village, since the woman had called him earlier at the week and seemed fine. That phone call had been arranged by the DA's office, unbeknownst to him.
In addition, Moreno said he was surprised the woman had forgotten conversations he'd had with her the night of the alleged attack and had a hazy overall memory of the night.
"Maybe she was a lot more messed up than I thought that day," he testified Tuesday.
Moreno claimed on the stand Monday that the woman tried to seduce him by taking off her shirt and attempting to kiss him, but that he resisted her advances.
He testified that he stayed with her throughout the night — even lying to a 911 dispatcher about a false incident to buy himself more time at the woman's apartment — because he felt bad for her and did not want her to be alone in her drunken state. He added that he "snuggled" with her and kissed her on her back.
He returned to her apartment three times after the initial visit, when he and his partner were called by a cab driver worried that she was too drunk to get into her apartment.
Assistant District Attorney Coleen Balbert cross-examined Moreno about his claims that he felt bad for the woman and tried to counsel her about her drinking problem.
Moreno testified Monday that he had a "soft spot" for heavy drinkers after overcoming his own bout with alcoholism in the wake of 9/11.
"In those seven minutes with this woman you had never met before, this stranger, you said this 27-year-old who went out drinking that night, she's got a drinking problem? That's what you're telling us?"
"Yes," Moreno said.
Balbert also grilled Moreno about his claims that he faked a 911 call to a dispatcher to buy him more time to stay with the victim.
"It wasn't to help her, it was to help yourself and your partner so you could go back there time and time again and take advantage of that drunk helpless girl," Balbert said.
"Nobody took advantage," he answered.
Balbert asked Moreno why he violated his NYPD oath after 17 years on the force, prompting him to answer, "I wasn't thinking about my oath to uphold the law."
"I was a New York City police officer but I was also a human being that day. I'm not a machine," he said.
She hammered him about why he did not tell his lieutenant about his desire to check on the woman and insisted he did not make a record of where he was going on his meal break
His commanding officer was "more interested in the chicken parmesan he was eating" than Moreno's meal break whereabouts, the suspended cop said.
Moreno and Mata are charged with rape, burglary and official misconduct for allegedly failing to call an ambulance for the alleged victim.
