Michael Pena, former NYPD officer, gets 75 years for sex attack
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Michael Pena, an ex-NYPD officer who grabbed a schoolteacher off the street and sexually attacked her was sentenced Monday to 75 years-to-life in prison after being convicted in March of high-level sex charges.
Pena apologized and expressed shame as he received the sentence.
"I'll always carry the shame burden of my actions, what I did, for the rest of my life; the shame burden I caused my parents, my siblings," Pena told the court.
"I have no explanation for what happened that day. I know I should be punished," he said, telling the victim he was "terribly sorry" for his actions. "I will just have that guilt for the rest of my life."
With a supporter by her side, the victim said in an anxious but steady voice: "My life has been shattered - my sense of security, my sense of safety, any and all independence." She wept after she sat down.
An officer for three years, Pena was off-duty and wrapping up an alcohol-soaked night of trying to pick up women when he accosted the teacher on an Upper Manhattan street early one morning last August, according to trial evidence. She was on her way to her first day of work at a new job.
She testified that Pena forced her into an apartment building courtyard and raped her at gunpoint.
Pena's lawyer, Ephraim Savitt, said the officer attacked the woman but never had intercourse with her which is a requirement for a rape conviction.
Although they deadlocked on rape charges, jurors convicted Pena of some of the top charges in the case, including predatory sexual assault, an offense that involves wielding a weapon during certain sex crimes.
Pena was fired from the police force after his arrest.
Pena "showed by his deplorable conduct that he is not one of New York's finest," Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers said at the sentencing.
"Michael Pena is, instead, a sexual predator," the judge said, adding that Pena "acted purposefully and intentionally throughout this dreadful incident."
More on Crimesider:
March 29, 2012 - NYPD officer Michael Pena convicted of sex crimes, but jury deadlocks on rape