Three months ago, a young woman wept as she accused a veteran Boynton Beach police officer of forcing her to perform oral sex before raping her at gunpoint on the hood of his patrol car.
For the first time on Friday, the 20-year-old alleged victim’s accusations against Stephen Maiorino, 35, were heard loud and clear in a Palm Beach County courtroom, as the jailed defendant sought his release on bond while awaiting trial.
Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg-Feuer listened to an 80-minute audio recording of an at-times graphic statement the accuser gave to a detective for the State Attorney’s Public Corruption Unit, prior to the officer’s Oct. 30 arrest.
“I couldn’t believe it happened to me,” the alleged victim said in her Oct. 21 statement, later adding, “I thought I was going to die.”
After more witnesses came forward to oppose and support Maiorino during Friday’s nearly four-hour hearing, the judge announced she would issue an order concerning the bond request “as quickly as I possibly can.”
Prosecutor Marci Rex called Maiorino a “danger” to both the victim and the community, while defense attorney Michael Salnick countered, “to even think that would be illogical,” and tried to cast doubt on the “veracity” of the accuser.
“What occurred was consensual,” Salnick told the judge, adding the accuser changed her mind after the Oct. 15 encounter and came forward with false claims. “This is a he-said-she-said.”
Maiorino, a married father of two small children, has a room waiting for him in the home of friend and Boynton Beach Police Officer Lou Rodriguez, as well as a job with a local moving company if he’s let out of jail.
“He’s a great officer, always has been,” Rodriguez testified, adding he would lock up his service guns in a safe if Maiorino were to live with him.
Salnick suggested house arrest with an ankle monitor, a curfew, and surrender of his passport to give the court extra assurance that his client would not flee. The attorney also gave the judge a stack of letters from friends and relatives vouching for Maiorino’s character.
“He’s not going anywhere,” the attorney promised. “He wants to deal with these charges.”
But Rex argued Maiorino should stay behind bars while he is charged with two counts of sexual battery by a law enforcement officer with a firearm, armed kidnapping, and a bribery-type offense. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
The prosecutor blasted the defense claim that the episode was consensual. She told the court Maiorino had threatened and intimidated the victim and “no condition of release will reasonably prevent the obstruction of the judicial process.”
The Sun Sentinel is not identifying the alleged victim because of the nature of the charges.
On the recording, she told Detective Diana Burfield that Maiorino said, ‘If you tell anyone what just happened, I will find you and I will kill you.’
The woman was not in the courtroom. But her mother watched the hearing and also briefly testified about accompanying her daughter and an investigator to the alleged crime scene hours after the apparent attack, where authorities said they found a condom and condom wrapper with the accuser’s DNA on it.
Her DNA also was found on Maiorino’s underwear, Rex said.
Less than three weeks after Maiorino’s arrest, the alleged victim filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Boynton Beach, accusing the police department of continuing to employ the officer despite alleged misconduct while on duty.
Maiorino, a U.S. Army reservist who served as a Boynton cop for eight years, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave and will be fired, according to Police Chief Jeffrey Katz. The chief termed Maiorino a “rogue officer” and said he was “both disturbed and disgusted by the nature of the complaint.”
Maiorino and his accuser met because a man she had been riding with on Oct. 15 was stopped by police after a pursuit, according to a police report.
The friend was subsequently arrested and charged with fleeing and eluding, resisting officers without violence and DUI, records show.
His car was towed, leaving the woman stranded with a dead cellphone. Maiorino showed up to the scene to take her back to the police station, where relatives would pick her up, records show.
She and the officer made it to the parking lot outside the station, where he threatened to arrest her for underage drinking unless she performed oral sex on him, she said in her statement.
“He grabbed me by the neck and forced me down,” she said.
Maiorino drove her to another location, described as an abandoned field, to continue the assault, police said.
During the alleged rape, the officer held her face down on the hood of his cruiser with his right hand and pointed a gun at her with his left, she told investigators.
After Friday’s hearing, Maiorino was led away in handcuffs. But before leaving the courtroom, he turned, smiled at his wife, brother-in-law and other supporters, and said, “I love youse.”
mjfreeman@tribpub.com, 561-243-6642 or Twitter @MarcJFreeman
