WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - A judge has denied a request for a new trial by a former Massachusetts police officer convicted of raping a woman while on duty.
Rajat Sharda, a former Worcester officer, claimed he had ineffective counsel, arguing his lawyer failed to challenge the victim’s “inconsistencies” in her statements.
Sharda was convicted of rape and other charges in 2015. Prosecutors say Sharda was on duty in 2013 when he assaulted a woman after finding her and her boyfriend engaged in a sexual encounter in a vehicle in a parking lot.
The woman had testified that the officer sexually assaulted her after handcuffing her boyfriend.
Masslive.com reports that the judge said this month he can’t conclude that the defense’s strategy to focus on the police investigation was unreasonable at the time.
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