Former sheriff’s deputy faces 60 years to life in prison on four
rape counts
Michael Rodrigues, the 25-year sheriff’s deputy convicted of
raping three women, is scheduled for a sentence hearing today.
Former sheriff’s deputy faces 60 years to life in prison on four rape counts
Michael Rodrigues, the 25-year sheriff’s deputy convicted of raping three women, is scheduled for a sentence hearing today.
A jury convicted Rodrigues, 48, on Sept. 25 at the San Benito County Courthouse. Rodrigues will be back in the local courtroom for the 1:15 p.m. hearing today when he faces a sentence of 60 years to life in prison. The hearing – at which residents can speak in his support or against him – is set to take place in courtroom 201.
It should end the nearly two-year court proceedings since the former San Benito County Sheriff’s Office deputy’s indictment by a grand jury in December 2007.
During the September trial, defense attorney Art Cantu had filed a motion alleging judicial bias by visiting Judge Alan Hedegard, but Sacramento Judge Russell Hom has dismissed the filing.
Nearly two months ago, a trial jury convicted Rodrigues on four counts of rape between 1999 and 2006, while the jury came down with not guilty verdicts on four charges related to one of the accuser’s allegations.
Rodrigues since his trial’s completion has been incarcerated at the Tuolumne County Jail due to safety concerns because he was a peace officer.
Rodrigues spent 25 years in the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office. Prosecutor Patrick Palacios during the trial portrayed the former deputy as someone who abused his position of authority while seeking victims. Palacios referred to Rodrigues as a “serial rapist.”
