A grand jury in Manhattan has voted to indict two New York City police officers in the December rape of a woman who claimed she was sexually attacked after the officers escorted her from a taxicab to her apartment in the East Village while she was intoxicated, according to law enforcement officials and other people familiar with the case.
The grand jury last week charged both officers — Kenneth Moreno and Franklin L. Mata — though the details of the indictment were not immediately disclosed, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The officers, who have been on modified duty, stripped of their guns and badges and working in administrative assignments, are expected to surrender on Tuesday morning and face arraignment in criminal court.
“Since I haven’t been advised of the formal charges, I am not in a position to comment at this time,” said Edward J. Mandery, a lawyer for Officer Mata.
Stephen C. Worth, a lawyer for Officer Moreno, said: “My client will appear in court tomorrow and enter a plea of not guilty. We look forward to a rigorous examination of the district attorney’s evidence.”
The case came to light in March when officials disclosed the nature of the investigation. Officials said the woman, who was not identified, went to the hospital on Dec. 7, the morning of the reported rape, and also contacted prosecutors who notified the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, law enforcement officials said.
Although both officers were at the woman’s apartment, only one of them is suspected of raping the woman, according to a person who has been briefed on the investigation. Investigators have been looking at a theory of rape in which someone has intercourse with a person too intoxicated to give consent, the person said. State law differentiates between rape under that circumstance and forcible sex.
Video surveillance helped internal investigators unravel what they say occurred.
The video, from a surveillance camera at a bar near the woman’s building, shows two uniformed officers helping her into the building at 1:10 a.m. and then returning twice over the next two hours — spending 34 minutes in the building during their final visit, according to the bar owner, who gave the video to the district attorney’s office.
During the investigation, the authorities said, officials were unable to find Officer Mata’s memo book — a notebook officers use to log their activities and movements.
At some point after the officers escorted the woman back to her apartment, they were dispatched on a ”radio run,” to report to the scene of an accident, according to one person briefed on the investigation.
After finishing at the accident scene, the officers returned to the woman’s apartment, but they did not report that they had completed their run, the person said. Instead, according to the surveillance tape, the officers did not indicate that their duties at the accident site were completed until after they left the woman’s apartment for the final time, at 3:33 a.m., the person said.
In a search of Officer Moreno’s locker on Dec. 19, police officials found a packet of heroin, the authorities said. The drugs were believed to be unrelated to the rape allegations, but it is unclear why the heroin was in the locker.
The person familiar with the case said the officer could be charged with possession of a controlled substance — though the officer could argue that he had confiscated the heroin but simply forgot to formally turn it in as evidence.
Alicia Maxey Greene, a spokeswoman for the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, declined to comment on the developments.
