The woman took the stand
against Officer Arthur Roldan, who she accused of raping her in a parking lot
in Staten Island while he held a gun to her. Roldan’s department trial could
lead to him losing his job, though he’s been on paid suspension since the 2012
incident.
BY TINA MOORE
A petite woman said she fought
back against her cop ex-boyfriend, but the brawny officer raped her at gunpoint
in the back seat of his car in testimony at his departmental trial Monday.
"I pulled, but I couldn't
pull more than he was pulling," the woman said in Spanish through an
interpreter at the hearing for Officer Arthur Roldan, 29. "I would have
liked to do a lot of things, but I didn't because I was afraid of the
gun."
Roldan made headlines when he
was accused of raping the woman on July 31, 2012, in his car in a Midland
Beach, Staten Island parking lot. But a grand jury declined to indict him.
Roldan, who lives on Staten
Island, has been on paid suspension ever since but could lose his job if found
guilty of the departmental charges against him, including having sex without
the woman’s consent and threatening her with a gun.
A source said a disciplinary
trial can move forward despite the grand jury’s decision so the NYPD can
determine if an officer did anything against department standards.
The woman testified that Roldan
pulled her from the front seat into the back seat by her arms and forced her on
top of him as he sat with his pistol in one hand.
Despite her fears, she said she
was able to scratch his face.
She reported the incident to
police only 20 minutes later.
Outside the courtroom at 1
Police Plaza, Roldan defended himself, saying the woman was his girlfriend for
two years and that the sex was consensual.
“There was no sign of any trauma at all,” he
said, adding that he never took his gun out of its holster and that he drove
her home afterward.
He also said he had frequently
given the woman money, including helping her with rent, and that the two had
been texting about having sex right before they met.
“We were going to go to a
hotel,” he said.
He questioned how she had the
money for a long list of plastic surgeries, including breast augmentation,
buttocks injections, full-body hair removal and a nose job.
Roger Blank, Roldan’s lawyer,
said there are inconsistencies in the woman’s version of events.
Roldan is an eight-year veteran
of the force.