Plea Deal Accepted In Long Island Woman's False Rape Case

FAIRFIELD, CT — Less than a month after testifying that she never told police that she was sexually assaulted, former Sacred Heart University student Nikki Yovino pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that she falsely reported being raped by two former football players, according to the Connecticut Post.

Yovino, now 20, of Long Island, decided to accept a plea deal just as jury selection was about to begin in the back-and-forth case. Prior to testifying that she never told police that she was sexually assaulted, Yovino's attorney told a Superior Court judge in a pretrial hearing in March that she would claim at a trial that she was in fact sexually assaulted. Yovino was arrested in February 2017 after Bridgeport Police said she recanted her original story, which alleged that the two men raped her in a basement bathroom at a house party on Lakeside Drive in Bridgeport on Oct. 14, 2016.

Daniel Tepfer of the Post reports Yovino pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor charges of two counts of second-degree falsely reporting an incident and one count of interfering with police. Under the plea deal, Yovino will serve one year in prison followed by three years' probation, according to Tepfer.

Yovino previously rejected a plea deal on two occasions, most recently in January, and was denied a pretrial probation program by a Superior Court judge last October that could have led to a dismissal of the charge. She faced up to six years in prison if convicted and previously rejected plea deals of two years in prison (by prosecutors) and one year in prison (by a judge), according to the Connecticut Post.

Bridgeport Police said Yovino, who was 18 at the time, initially reported in October 2016 that she was sexually assaulted by a Sacred Heart University football player and another man who was a former student. Police said they conducted a thorough investigation and met several times with Sacred Heart administrators.

"Initial statements from witnesses and evidence recovered from the scene suggested that a sexual assault had occurred," Bridgeport Police said in a press release following the arrest. "As the investigation continued, the case detective received more information that contradicted Yovino's statements to police. This information included new witness accounts, text messages and cellphone video. Yovino was confronted with this evidence, and admitted that she, in fact, did have consensual sex with both males."

Read more about Tuesday's court appearance at the Connecticut Post here.

Written by Vincent Salzo

Photo via the Bridgeport Police Department