ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The mayor of Rochester, NY, says he didn’t provide a positive job recommendation for a fired police officer later imprisoned for coercing a woman into having sex.

Robert Duffy, who became mayor in 2006 after seven years as police chief, took the stand Monday at the trial of Merritt Rahn, a former police chief in the Rochester suburb of Greece charged with falsifying documentation that helped Gary Pignato get hired in 2002.

Duffy says he spoke with no one from Greece about whether its police department should hire Pignato.

Pignato was fired by the Rochester force in 1997 over misconduct allegations. He drew two-to-six years in prison last summer for coercing the woman after investigating a domestic disturbance at her boyfriend’s home.