Woman Says RI Officer Raped Her, Came to Hospital

A woman who says she was raped by an on-duty Providence police officer testified Monday that the man came into her hospital room grinning and in uniform after the alleged attack in 2007.

The 22-year-old woman said she recalled seeing officer Marcus Huffman in the hours after the alleged rape, but told the jury that she could not remember how long he was there or anything else about the encounter.

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Prosecutors allege that Huffman, who is charged with first-degree sexual assault in Providence Superior Court, raped the woman in the bathroom of an empty police substation after offering her a ride outside a nightclub where she had been turned away for being too drunk.

Prosecutor Maureen Keough asked the woman if she had given any indication that she wanted to have sex with Huffman, and she said, “No.” She testified that she identifies herself as a lesbian.

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The woman said she was feeling sick from a night of heavy drinking on March 17, 2007 and was turned away by the club’s owner when Huffman, in his marked police cruiser, offered her a ride so she could use a bathroom. She said she remembered being driven to the substation and then waking up in a bathroom stall there with her pants undone and her undergarments removed.

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Huffman has been suspended without pay from the department. His accuser is due back on the stand Tuesday morning.

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