New York officials deny city is responsible for NYPD cop accused of groping a rape victim

New York city officials are denying the city bears any responsibility for the actions of two NYPD officers who took a rape victim on a bar crawl then a hotel, where one of them groped her, the New York Daily News reports.

Officer Lukasz Skorzewski and Lt. Adam Lamboy flew to Seattle in 2013 as part of an investigation into the claims that a woman, whose name is being withheld, was raped in her Union Square apartment, the Daily News reports. A day after interviewing the 25-year-old victim, the officers persuaded her to accompany them on a 10-hour bar crawl, then back to their hotel room at the Embassy Suites in Bellevue.

The woman slept on Skorzewski's bed while he slept on the sofa, but at 10 a.m. he got into the bed with her and tried to tear off her clothes, according to the Daily News. She reported he told her his actions "can't leave this room."

Skorzewski also reportedly told her, "You're my favorite victim."

The victim, who is a nursing student, is currently suing the officers and the city for $3 million.

“Lamboy and Skorzewski were not acting under the color of state law because (the victim) does not allege sufficient facts to find plausibly that they invoked the authority of the NYPD when they engaged in conduct prohibited by the NYPD,” lawyers for the city wrote in a statement. Further, "“The NYPD does not have an obligation to train officers not to commit sexual assault because it is an obvious criminal act."

The victim reported that Skorzewski became aggressive with her in the hotel room.

“He really felt me up, tried to get his hands down my pants,” she said in an interview with the Daily News last year. “He was trying to put his hands down my pants or work them up my shorts.”

Both officers were demoted after the incident. Skorzewski has filed a $2 million countersuit against the victim, alleging defamation of character.