Teen accused of falsely claiming rape faces judge
Updated 10:58 pm, Friday, March 3, 2017
BRIDGEPORT — As 18-year-old Nikki Yovino and her parents tried to dodge the news media Friday outside the Golden Hill Street courthouse, her lawyer said his client’s story would soon be told.
Police say the Long Island teen made up rape allegations against two former Sacred Heart University football players to gain sympathy from a prospective boyfriend.
Both young men were suspended from the team. University officials have disputed statements from police, who said the two football players also lost their scholarships.
“There is a lengthier and more complicated narrative that we are going to address at a future time,” Yovino’s lawyer, Mark Sherman, of Stamford, said in front of television cameras after the day’s court proceedings. “She will definitely be pleading not guilty.”
In the courthouse, Yovino and her mom and dad sat in the center of the crowded gallery of the arraignment court as she waited for her name to be called. When it was, Yovino stood beside Sherman before Superior Court Judge William Holden, her hands clasped in front of her.
She is charged with second-degree falsely reporting an incident and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
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The tampering charge is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
“We are in the process of turning over additional documents to the defense,” Assistant State’s Attorney Tatiana Messina told the judge.
Holden then continued the case to April 3. Yovino is free after posting $150,000 bond.
Police said that when Detective Walberto Cotto Jr. pressed Yovino about inconsistencies in her original statement, she admitted she had made up the allegations against the two young men.
On Oct. 15, police were dispatched to St. Vincent’s Medical Center for a sexual assault complaint. Police said Yovino told them she had attended a Sacred Heart football club party the night before at a house at Lakeside Drive here.
Police said Yovino claimed the two men pulled her into a bathroom in the basement of the house.
“I don’t want to be in here, I don’t want to do anything. My friends are waiting for me outside, let me go outside,” police said she claimed to have told the men.
Police said she continued that the men held her down and each took a turn sexually assaulting her.
Police said both men admitted having sex with Yovino in the bathroom, but said it was consensual. Both students agreed to withdraw from the university as they were about to go before a disciplinary hearing, police said.
Cotto later questioned Yovino again after others students told them it appeared Yovino had gone willingly into the bathroom with the men. One student said he had overheard Yovino telling the men she wanted to have sex with them, a police affidavit states.
“She admitted that she made up the allegation of sexual assault against (the football players) because it was the first thing that came to mind and she didn’t want to lose (another male student) as a friend and potential boyfriend,” the affidavit states. “She stated that she believed when (the other male student) heard the allegation it would make him angry and sympathetic to her.”