crime and punishment

NYPD Rape Trial Jury Hits an Impasse

After three days of deliberations, the jury in the trail of Michael Pena, the off-duty police officer who was arrested for raping a woman at gunpoint in August, is apparently at an impasse. In a note sent to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers earlier this afternoon, the jurors said that they were unable to agree on whether or not Pena is guilty of two of the six predatory sexual assault charges against him. (They have ruled on the other four, though their verdicts were not disclosed.) The announcement reportedly brought the victim, a 25-year-old schoolteacher, to tears. While the note read, in part, “We do not believe that further deliberations … would lead us to a verdict,” the judge has ordered the panel to continue trying to come to a unanimous decision.

NYPD Rape Trial Jury Hits an Impasse