U.S Navy veteran, 43, raped 81 yr-old woman after night of drinking- police

Jeffrey LaPorto

A 43-year-old former Connecticut state trooper, Jeffrey LaPorto, raped an 81-year-old woman at a Windsor Locks hotel after a night of drinking together, police said.

But a lawyer for Jeffrey LaPorto, who was fired from the law enforcement agency three years ago, told the Hartford Courant that any sex between the two was consensual.

"There is nothing that shows anything was happening," Attorney Donald Papcsy told the newspaper. "Up until the time they went up to the hotel room, everything was consensual.”

Prosecutors believe what happened inside the Quality Inn room, near Bradley International Airport north of Hartford, was not consensual. After the two met and drank together at the hotel’s bar, they went to the room around midnight or 12:30 a.m. Friday. Her son called cops around 2 a.m. claiming she’d been raped. The elderly woman was taken to a local hospital, where medical staff discovered “extensive internal injuries,” according to the Courant.

“This was a sickening crime and all efforts were made to apprehend Mr. LaPorto, less than 24 hours from the commission of the crime," police Chief Eric Osanitsch told the newspaper.

But Papcsy, the man’s lawyer, said the U.S. Navy veteran is innocent — one suspicious witness even listened through the door and heard nothing happening inside the hotel room.

"There's no dispute that they went into that hotel room consensually," Papcsy told the Courant.

It’s unclear why LaPorto, who is self-employed, was fired from the state police force.

He and the woman, who was from out of state, did not know each other before Thursday night, but the court issued a protective order for the woman.

LaPorto, who faces charges of first-degree sexual assault and first-degree unlawful restraint, posted $250,000 bail and was released Monday.

He’s next due in court June 23.

Culled from NY Daily news