By Janon Fisher
Former 33rd Precinct NYPD
Officer Michael Pena was sentenced to 75 years in prison for raping a city
school teacher.View Full Caption
MANHATTAN — A former NYPD
officer convicted of raping a city public school teacher is appealing his
75-year sentence, saying even terrorists and mobsters don't get as much time
behind bars.
Former 33rd Precinct
officer Michael Pena, 30 — who grabbed Lydia Cuomo, then 24, as she walked to
her first day teaching at a new school early on Aug. 19, 2011 and threatened to
shoot her in the head if she resisted his 20-minute sex attack — is being
punished for prior failures by prosecutors, his lawyer said.
"In this case, a young
28-year-old man, whose crime was grievous, yet aberrant to his character and
prior personal history, was punished more harshly than al-Qaida terrorists,
vicious killers, kingpin narcotics offenders, violent gangsters and racketeers
and other recidivist predators," Pena's lawyer, Ephraim Savitt, said in
court documents, adding that he wants the appellate court panel to slash the
amount of time Pena must serve.
"This is ... a case of
justice run amok, fueled by public outrage drummed up by the media, fired up by
two then-recently highly publicized failed sex-crime prosecutions and the
perceived need by the prosecution and the sentencing judge to send the
proverbial 'message,'" Savitt said in court papers of Supreme Court
Justice Richard Carruthers' sentence of three 25-year-to-life sentences, which
he ordered Pena to serve consecutively.
Pena's trial came shortly
after the Manhattan District Attorney's office failed to convicttwo police
officers charged with raping a woman in her East Village apartment in 2008.
Those officers were convicted of official misconduct in August 2011.
The acquittal of those
officers prompted protests against the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
The DA's office was also criticized for dropping a sexual-assault case against
former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was accused
of attacking a hotel maid in Midtown.
Pena's case, which appeared
more straightforward than the other two cases, included a witness who told the
jury he saw Pena attacking Cuomo in an alley.
A jury did not convict him
on the rape charge, because they did not feel the prosecutor proved the narrow
definition of rape during the trial. He was convicted on other counts of
criminal and predatory sex acts.
The rape acquittal again
caused a firestorm of public outrage and prompted Cuomo to come forward publicly
to offer her support for a change in the legal definition of rape. That law
failed in Albany last year.
Pena eventually pleaded
guilty to rape after prosecutors ramped up for a second trial, but that
conviction did not add additional time to his sentence.
Cuomo told DNAinfo New York
that she supported the judge's sentence.
"The judge didn't make
the sentencing up," she said. "He's following guidelines."
Cuomo, who has continued
her teaching career in the city, defended the Manhattan District Attorney's
office.
"They seek justice in
every case they do," she said.
Although the DA does not
determine punishment, Savitt argued that recommendations made to the judge and
the vigor with which they prosecuted the case persuaded Carruthers to hand down
a stricter sentence.
"It sends the wrong
message that it is better to murder a woman whom you have raped because the
penalty for murder is 25 years to life, making the offender eligible for parole
after 25 years, whereas if she survives more than one sex act in the same
encounter, the offender will never face a parole board in his lifetime,"
Savitt argued.
The Manhattan District
Attorney has not yet responded to the appeal and declined to comment.
No date has been set for
the appeal hearing.
