SAVANNAH - A jury convicted a former Savannah police officer Friday of rape, sexual battery, kidnapping and false imprisonment. <br>
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Joseph Quenga, 47, maintained throughout his trial that he did not commit the offenses, including the kidnapping and rape of a woman he pulled over for DUI in 2000. <br>
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``Officer Quenga, a jury of your peers disagrees with you,'' Judge John E. Morse Jr. said. Jurors deliberated for five hours before rendering their verdict. <br>
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Quenga was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Under Georgia's Seven Deadly Sins law, he must serve 100 percent of his time, with no chance for parole. <br>
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Quenga's attorney, Michael Edwards, asked the judge to consider his client's good character in handing down a sentence. But Morse said that for a police officer to sexually assault women while wearing his badge was ``quite devastating.'' <br>
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``There's no greater blow to the criminal justice system than for one who is part of that system to abuse it,'' Morse said. <br>
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Edwards said they will appeal in the case.
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