(Rochester, N.Y.) -- Suspended Greece Police Officer Gary Pignato faced his accuser in court Tuesday, in the first of two trials that he coerced women into having sex.
The victim’s boyfriend testified that he called police August 24 because she had been drinking vodka and that was against his rules; she’d had a problem with drugs and alcohol before and was on probation.
The victim held up a ripped T-shirt belonging to Pignato; she said she tore it trying to get away from him.
The victim said when Pignato arrived, she was in her bedroom packing her clothes when he followed her in and closed the door.
She testified, "He said, "You’ll meet me later, in five minutes.' I told him, 'No, I don’t want to do that.' Then he said, 'You don’t want to go to jail.'...I thought he wanted sex from me so I wouldn’t go to jail.'"
She also said Pignato asked her to bring a red silk robe and a police woman Halloween costume that he found in her closet.
She said she met him at a mini-mart, he took her to his house and they had sex three times.
Pignato’s attorney, Scott Green, doesn’t deny the sex took place, but he says it was consensual. He said the issue is not the propriety of an officer meeting someone on duty and later having sex with them; the issue is whether he coerced the person.
The victim said when Pignato took her home he said, "You’re not gonna call the cops, are you?" She said she answered, "Why would I do that?"
But then, she did go to police. She agreed to wear a wire and contacted Pignato for phone conversations. Those were played for jurors Tuesday. However, Pignato doesn't admit to anything.
As the victim testified, she avoided looking at Pignato, even when she had to identify him. She cried softly through some of the testimony,
Then Green began a blistering cross examination, bringing up her arrest record in Kentucky where she once lived.
"Isn’t it true…there’s warrant for your arrest for not paying fines?" Green asked.
"I didn’t know that," she answered.
Green's cross examination will continue on Wednesday.
