NYPD Cop Convicted of Sexual Assualt

Officer could face life in prison

An off-duty police officer was convicted Tuesday of sexually assaulting a woman on the street as she made her way to work.

The woman, who remained nameless, testified that officer Michael Pena grabbed her off the street, forced her into an Upper Manhattan apartment building courtyard and raped her at gunpoint last August, ABC News reported. She was on her way to her first day of work at a teaching job.

Jurors found Pena guilty Tuesday of a criminal sex act and some counts of predatory sexual assault. The officer could face life in prison for the latter charge.

But jurors were only able to deliver a partial verdict. Some counts remain unresolved, like whether the victim was actually raped. The defense said Pena acknowledges attacking the woman but never had intercourse with her.

ABC News described the woman as emotional when the partial verdict was given, while the defendant displayed no visible reaction. 

The Judge demanded that the jurors continue to deliberate until a decision is made about the rape charges.