Fiancee tells jury she still loves NYPD cop accused of rape

Alma Rodriguez, fiancée of rape-cop Michael Pena, told jury she still loves and plans to marry officer.

SHE’S STANDING by her man — the accused rapist cop.

Tall, slim and elegant, Alma Rodriguez, the fiancée of the officer facing life in jail for drunkenly raping a city schoolteacher in an Inwood back alley told the jury that she understands the nature of the crime, but she still loves him and they’re still engaged.

Wearing sunglasses and covering her head with a gauzy tan scarf to avoid photographers, Rodriquez testified through a translator on the final day of testimony that Officer Michael Pena even had sex with her on the evening of the attack.

The now-suspended cop has admitted assaulting the 25-year-old teacher and threatening to blow her face off with his police Police Department-issued Glock, but he denies it was rape.

“My client showed her a gun. She was scared to death. He did a terrible thing. He did an unforgivable thing,” Pena’s attorney, Ephraim Savitt, told the jury in his closing argument.

But Savitt insisted Pena never penetrated the woman during the Aug. 19 attack in Inwood and asked the jury to clear him of the most serious charge.

“Don’t think my client will ever get away with this. He won’t,” Savitt said.

He suggested the victim was in such “abject terror” after Pena threatened to “blow her face off” if she looked at him, she was mistaken about having been penetrated.

Assistant District Attorney Evan Krutoy scoffed at the defense’s claim that Pena did not rape the victim, reminding the jury that an eyewitness saw him raping her. He also countered that Pena’s semen was found on the victim’s underwear.

The cop’s fate is now in the jury’s hands.

The panel deliberated about 90 minutes Thursday before asking for a readback of testimony on DNA evidence and the rape kit performed on the victim shortly after the attack.
The jury will hear that requested testimony when they resume deliberations Friday.

During the Manhattan Supreme Court trial, the victim testified that she was waiting for a ride to a Bronx school to start her first day of a new teaching job when she encountered Pena on the street.

She said Pena, who was off-duty at the time, threatened her with a gun, dragged her into a nearby courtyard, forced her to perform oral sex and raped her.