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The reason I want to respond is because the public needs to know that, all too often, your public servants are threatened and asked to compromise their integrity and sense of justice unless they succumb to threats. That is exactly what has happened in this case.
Judy Rodriguez’s son, David Rodriguez, was indicted for the 1st degree felony of burglary of a habitation with a deadly weapon, and with his prior possession of cocaine conviction, where he went to prison for two years, he was facing a minimum of 15 years to 99 years or life. He was subsequently indicted for two additional felonies of aggravated perjury and felon in possession of a firearm.
His mother, Judy Rodriguez, asked to come into my office and speak to me about her son’s charges, and I agreed, but only if Sheriff Andy Louderback could be present as a witness. Mrs. Rodriguez basically demanded that I dismiss these charges against her son and even stated that “no one would know but me and you.”
When I pointed out that perhaps she had a tape recorder in her purse, she agreed to remove her purse from my office. The clear implication was that if I didn’t dismiss these charges, or give her son probation, then she would subsequently claim that as a “court watcher” in Jackson County since 2003, that I was prejudiced, discriminated against minorities, and was involved in racial injustice.
The article states that David Rodriguez didn’t take the plea bargain because he was a man “of principle and would rather go to prison than confess to something he didn’t do.”
I want the public to know that this isn’t true, and what actually happened is that David and Jury Rodriguez felt that I would eventually succumb to these threats and either dismiss or give David Rodriguez probation.
The reason I know this is true is that the five-year offer (on all three felonies) had been left open for more than One-and-a-half years and finally was withdrawn on the Friday preceding the trial date.
On the day of trial, when the jury was present, David and Judy Rodriguez realized that I was not going to “succumb to their threats,” and David Rodriguez offered to plead guilty and take 20 years in prison. Nevertheless, true to her word, Judy Rodriguez has claimed prejudice, discrimination and racial injustice against me.
I think it is worthwhile to point out that Judy Rodriguez has been a “court watcher” in Jackson County since 2003 and has never claimed any discrimination against me or my office until her son was sentenced to 75 years in prison by a Jackson County jury.
I also wish to tell “the rest of the story” about David Rodriguez who was portrayed as a man “of principle.” Within 24 hours of kicking his friend’s door down and threatening him with a knife and stealing 30 to 40 DVDs, David Rodriguez, in retaliation for the victim reporting this crime, went over to the victim’s girlfriend’s house at 1 a.m. and knocked on her door.
This girl’s mother described her as having had problems at birth resulting in her being very child-like mentally and emotionally. Mr. Rodriguez had only met her one time before and lured her to his car under the pretext of taking her to see her boyfriend (the victim in this case) and drove her to a secluded area and sexually assaulted her against her will in retaliation.
Furthermore, David Rodriguez, this supposed man “of principle” was previously stopped in Wharton County for driving while intoxicated. He was bringing some money back to his mother and he and his mother, Judy, accused the DPS trooper of stealing this money. While in the Wharton County Jail, the jailer overheard David Rodriguez on the phone saying that he, David Rodriguez, had spent the money the night before in Houston at an “exotic dancing bar” but that he was going to continue to accuse the DPS trooper of stealing the money anyway. That jailer testified to these facts under oath.
David Rodriguez also testified, under oath to the Jackson County grand jury (which was introduced into evidence at this trial), that he only took the DVDs from the victim because the victim owed him $200. Then he testified he later sold the DVDs to friends and acquaintances in Houston for $147. At trial, a pawn ticket with his name and photo of his driver’s license was introduced into evidence showing that he pawned the DVDs for $25 in Victoria within 24 hours of the incident.
The Jackson County jury which assessed the 29-year-old David Rodriguez’s punishment at 75 years in prison also heard evidence of David Rodriguez having committed 10 criminal misdemeanors and five felonies.
There was much more introduced at David Rodriguez’s trial including an arrest where David Rodriguez fought the officers and on the video/audio, cussed the officers in a manner that was so vile that it cannot be reduced to print. He also threatened to “call the organization in on the officers.”
I felt it important to respond this time because too often your prosecutors are threatened to either drop or reduce charges, and, if they don’t, the individuals making the threat will go to the media and accuse them of being prejudiced. I have always chose not to yield to these threats, but on behalf of all prosecutors, I wanted to take this incident to not only make the public aware of these type of threats which we receive, but also to show how in this case these allegations are completely unwarranted and were made because of my refusal to comply with their threats.
Bobby Bell is the Jackson County district attorney.