The East Village woman accusing an NYPD officer of raping her while his partner stood guard was so drunk that night she sat in a puddle of her own vomit in the back of a taxi for over five minutes, a cab driver testified yesterday. Prosecutors interviewed friends of the unidentified woman and the hack, who had to call 911 because he says she was so drunk she couldn't make it from the cab to her apartment. She had begged the driver to help her get in, but TLC rules prohibit that, and so he called for help, which came in the form of two cops who allegedly took advantage of her in the worst way.

"I have somebody in my cab that is so drunk that I need assistance," taxi driver Kofi Owusu told 911, according to a recording of the call played in court. He says that during the 25 minute ride from Southpaw in Brooklyn to the apartment, his fare vomited twice—once outside the cab and once inside—after he told her he didn't have a plastic bag she could vomit in. Prosecutors sought to demonstrate yesterday that the woman was so intoxicated she could not have consented to sex, and yet not so inebriated that she wouldn't be able to recall what happened later.

The woman had been celebrating a recent promotion with friends at the bar, and one of them, Laure Simi, testified yesterday she thought the woman was more sick than drunk. "She just couldn't get her bearings," Simi told jurors. "She was stumbling. Just not stable on her feet. She kept saying she wanted to go home." Lawyers for the officers, Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, tried to downplay the alleged victim's intoxication, asking Simi about a Facebook exchange she left for her the next day reassuring her she'd actually seemed "OK" that night. "I thought she was intoxicated, not OK," insisted Simi. "I thought she was pretty messed up."

Prosecutors allege that after helping the woman into her home, Moreno and Mata returned to the apartment three more times, and on the final visit, Moreno raped her while Mata acted as lookout. But Moreno, a recovering alcoholic, says the woman made a pass at him while he was "counseling" her about her drinking, and that he "succumbed to physical contact" (kissing her on the shoulder) but did not have sex with her.

Update (9/9/11): Gothamist has published a long-form feature about the Rape Cop case, written by one of the jurors. It takes you behind the scenes during their deliberations, and explains how they came to their controversial verdict. Buy it today as a PDF or on Kindle.



