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ALBANY – A Long Island-based lawyer for convicted Albany rapist Mohammed X. Poquee claims a missing sex tape of his client and a Capital Region attorney would show Poquee’s victim had a “motive to destroy his life” with jealously-fueled false allegations more than 22 years ago.
Steven M. Raiser, a Mineola attorney who joined Poquee’s defense team last month, suggested the victim watched the sex tape of Poquee and another woman — Albany County public defender Melissa Aiezza-Carpinello — and then falsely accused Poquee of rape out of jealous anger.
The woman, who had been involved with Poquee, testified at trial in 2020 that Poquee attacked her over multiple days in her home on St. Joseph's Terrace in Arbor Hill beginning on April 28, 2000. A jury convicted Poquee, now 47, of first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and felony assault. He is serving 32 years in state prison.
In his trial testimony, Poquee admitted he engaged in multiple sex acts with the victim; he said it was consensual. Poquee also admitted he punched the woman, bit her and struck her using a wooden rod. He argued it was self-defense after she attacked him.
In his memo filed Wednesday, Raiser said Poquee's trial defense was pitted against the victim's credibility. Raiser suggested the victim found the sex tape of Poquee and Carpinello, which ignited an already volatile situation of jealousy.
"This was the last straw that drove her into a rage,"...
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