(Rochester, N.Y.) - New details have surfaced about a second woman's accusations that a suspended Greece Police officer coerced her to perform sexual favors.
Officer Gary Pignato already faces criminal charges for a similar incident involving another woman. Both cases allegedly happened four years ago.
In her statement to police, the woman claims Officer Gary Pignato followed her home in the summer of 2005 after seeing her drive by on Dewey Avenue.
Once in the parking lot of her apartment complex, the woman said Pignato got out of his squad car. She told police, "He started hitting on me, he asked me how's my sex life...he gave me his card with his name on it -- Gary Pignato.”
The woman says she never called Pignato but he showed up at her apartment a day or two later and allegedly watched her through a sliding glass door.
"I was smoking a bowl of marijuana, the next thing I know Officer Pignato comes inside my apartment. He said what I was doing wasn't good and we can make this go away. He made me a deal,” the woman told police. “I could have sex with him and that would take care of it.”
The woman also claims Pignato said she could lose her children if she didn't agree to perform sexual favors.
She agreed to go to his home in Greece the next day and saw Pignato through a window of his house, the woman told police. “I saw him snort a line of what I presume was cocaine...then we had sex.”
The woman said she came forward four years after the alleged incident after hearing reports about a similar case involving Pignato and another woman. "A few months ago I read about Gary Pignato getting in trouble for doing the same thing with another woman. And I said, ‘Oh my God I can't believe it.’!’”
Pignato faces felony charges of bribery, coercion and trespassing for allegedly entering the woman's home and official misconduct.
He was arraigned Tuesday and released without bail. His trial on the initial charges begins June 1.
Pignato’s attorney Scott Green is troubled that the alleged behavior happened four years ago and the woman waited to come forward. He worries this could affect jury selection in the Pignato trial which is scheduled for June 1.
