Massachusetts Cop Sentenced for Rape, Gets 5 to 7 Years

WORCESTER, Mass. — Still maintaining his innocence through his lawyer, a former police officer convicted of rape last week was sentenced Monday to 5 to 7 years in state prison.

A Worcester Superior Court jury found Rajat Sharda guilty Thursday  of sexually assaulting a woman in August 2013 after the on-duty officer came across the woman and her boyfriend having sex in a vehicle in the parking lot of Bancroft Tower.  The jury returned convictions for rape, open and gross lewdness, witness intimidation and larceny under $250.

Saying the one-time officer had been found guilty of “an ugly and brutal act of rape,” Judge David Ricciardone sentenced him Monday to 5 to 7 years of imprisonment, followed by ten years of probation.

“I don’t agree with the decision. I don’t agree with the verdict. My client is innocent,” defense lawyer Peter L. Ettenberg told the judge during the sentencing hearing after Assistant District Attorney Ryan P. Donahue recommended that the 34-year-old Mr. Sharda be sentenced to 12 to 15 years behind bars with probation to follow.

“His actions are frankly disgusting,” Mr. Donahue told the court. He said the former officer was in a position of power when he took advantage of a “vulnerable” victim and violated the public trust in the process.  While acknowledging that advisory sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 5 to 7 years, the assistant district attorney said a sentence of 12 to 15 years was warranted because of aggravating factors in the case.

Mr. Ettenberg asked the judge to spare his client a jail or prison sentence and place him on straight probation.

Referring to letters of support written on his client’s behalf by members of his family, Mr. Ettenberg described Mr. Sharda as a deeply religious man who is devoted to his family, including his wife and year-old son.

“The conduct for which he is accused is totally against his religion (Hindu). His family would banish him if he did what he has been convicted of,” Mr. Ettenberg said.

He told the judge Mr. Sharda had already lost his job as a police officer after making history as the first officer of Indian descent in the city of Worcester and said a prison sentence would be “extraordinarily difficult” for him because of his former occupation.

“I ask the court, don’t make this worse,” Mr. Ettenberg said.

The former officer’s victim, a 29-year-old Connecticut woman, was in court for the sentencing, but did not wish to be heard, according to Mr. Donahue. He said the woman agreed with the prosecution’s recommended sentence.

According to testimony during the trial, the woman and her boyfriend were having sex in the back of her mother’s SUV on the morning of Aug. 6, 2013, when Officer Sharda pulled up in his cruiser, handcuffed her boyfriend, ordered her out of the vehicle and sexually assaulted her. The woman testified that the officer then masturbated in front of her, ejaculating on her leg and on a blanket she had wrapped around her to conceal her nakedness.

She said the officer took the blanket and placed it in the trunk of his cruiser before threatening to do harm to her family if she told anyone what had happened. He then allowed her and her boyfriend to leave, according to the woman. The blanket was never recovered by police.

Mr. Sharda denied the allegations from the witness stand.

The investigation that led to the charges against him was launched after the complaining witness ran into a police officer she knew several weeks later and told him about the sexual assault.

Mr. Sharda’s employment with the city ended in September of 2014, shortly after he was indicted on the charges for which he was convicted.

As conditions of probation, Mr. Sharda was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and any related treatment recommended by the Probation Department. He was further ordered to have no contact with the victim or any witnesses in the case and to submit to GPS monitoring for the first year of his probation.

This story written by Gary Murray