Jury deliberating rape trial of former Boynton Beach police officer Stephen

A Palm Beach County jury found 36-year-old Stephen Maiorino not guilty Tuesday of armed sexual battery, armed kidnapping and unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior.

The former cop, who is married with two small children, faced up to two life sentences if convicted of all the counts against him.

During the trial, Maiorino’s defense attorney Michael Salnick argued that the only thing his client was guilty of was showing bad judgement when he made a decision to have consensual sex on the job with a woman other than his wife.

He then pinned her against the hood of his cruiser and had his way with her. When he was done, and after the woman had gotten dressed, she said she turned to see him holding his handgun.

Her DNA was all over a condom wrapper later found in that abandoned field, and despite prosecutors’ claims that Maiorino transferred it there himself after touching her, it was equally plausible that it is evidence she consented.

If the two had consensual sex, Rex asked jurors, why did Maiorino stop and rush back to the station after fellow officers sent out an alert for him when the woman’s relatives arrived at the station and found she wasn’t there?

Meanwhile, back in the courtroom, Maiorino buried his head in his hands, relieved by the verdict.

He was accused of raping a woman near Interstate 95 while on-duty past year.

He threated to kill her and her family if she told anyone about what had taken place, she said.

The defense also accused the woman of making up the story to benefit her lawsuit, which she filed three weeks after his October 30 arrest. After he was acquitted, his accuser had to be removed from the room because of her cries.

After 10 hours of deliberations, the panel of four men and two women on Tuesday acquitted Stephen Maiorino, 36, of four charges arising from his October 15, 2014 encounter with the passenger of a friend arrested for DUI.

Speaking from the witness stand, the accuser insisted that the old snapshot was just a joke and not the expression of a sexual fantasy to have sex with a police officer on top of a squad auto.