The ex-NYPD officer called the “rape cop” during his sensational trial has filed a blockbuster $175 million lawsuit against his accuser and the city, the Daily News has learned.
Kenneth Moreno, 46, acquitted of the on-duty rape of a fashion executive in her East Village apartment in December 2008, says she is “nothing more than an opportunist.”
He said she falsely accused him of rape, causing him to be railroaded by Manhattan prosecutors who overlooked her credibility issues and the lack of forensic evidence to back up her claim of rape or even sexual intercourse.
Moreno’s false arrest suit further accuses the woman and civil attorney Yasmin Saeed of maliciously filing a $57 million lawsuit “to extort monies” from him and the city.
The 32-year-old accuser, now living in San Francisco, could not be reached for comment.
Her suit was tossed last year by a federal judge who ruled there was no evidence to back up her allegations that the city was negligent in the hiring and supervision of Moreno. She appealed the ruling and her suit was shot down a second time.
Saeed declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said the allegations will be reviewed when city lawyers receive the papers.
After a nearly two-month trial in 2011, Moreno and his partner, Franklin Mata, were convicted only of official misconduct for being in the woman’s apartment when they were supposed to be on patrol.
Moreno was sentenced to one year in prison and served about nine months behind bars with a rogues’ gallery of killers, including accused serial killer Salvatore (Son of Sal) Perrone.
“I tried to get through (jail) a day at a time but there was always the presence of danger and animosity,” Moreno said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with The News.
These days, Moreno tries to find work as a general contractor, showing up at construction sites with his tools, he said.
“There were some carpenters one day and one of them asked me if I was the ‘rape cop,’ ” he said. “They asked me to leave so I lost a job that day.
“I don’t want to be known as the ‘rape cop,’ ” he continued. “It’s horrible.”
Moreno and Mata had encountered the drunken woman Dec. 7, 2008, to help her out of a cab in front of her E. 13th St. building. Moreno admitted at the trial that they flirted and cuddled in her bed while Mata slept on the couch, but insisted he rebuffed the woman when she tried to kiss him and “grab me below the waist.”
“I held her for maybe five seconds,” he said. “My boots, my pants, my gun belt, my shirt, my vest, never came off. She wasn’t raped and we didn’t have sex.”
Moreno’s lawyer Eric Sanders said the suit, filed in Bronx Supreme Court, is intended to recover monetary damages and restore the ex-cop’s reputation.
“The prosecutors wanted to make a name for themselves and left him with a scarlet letter,” Sanders said.
Linda Fairstein, former chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s office sex crimes unit, defended her colleagues and the victim. “There was enough basis in fact for her case and I think she was extraordinarily courageous,” Fairstein said.
