Public records attorney says Hooper has obligation to reveal
charges, calls DA’s interpretation ‘tortured’
HOLLISTER
A California Newspaper Publishers Association attorney questioned why the District Attorney’s Office hasn’t disclosed charges from an indictment of former sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Rodrigues.
Attorney Jim Ewert said the public has a constitutional right to know what charges have been leveled against Rodrigues. He said San Benito County District Attorney Candice Hooper is misinterpreting the law by not doing so.
More than 24 hours after Rodrigues was to turn himself in on felony warrants, his whereabouts remain unknown. Hooper confirmed Thursday he was indicted, but again refused today to disclose the charges against him.
Rodrigues was under investigation for two rape allegations, violations of a court order to prevent domestic violence, stalking and intimidating a victim or witness, authorities have said.
Hooper said she has been directed not to disclose the charges and cited California Penal Code that states:
“Every district attorney, clerk, judge, or peace officer who, except by issuing or in executing a search warrant or warrant of arrest for a felony, willfully discloses the fact of the warrant prior to execution for the purpose of preventing the search or seizure of property or the arrest of any person shall be punished by imprisonment in state prison or in a county jail for not exceeding one year.”
Ewert said Hooper is citing law that deals with warrants, not indictments.
“That’s a tortured interpretation of the law,” Ewert said.
Hooper said she could announce the warrant and indictment Thursday because of the following California Penal Code section:
“Upon the return of an indictment and the issuance of an arrest warrant, a disclosure of the existence of the indictment and arrest warrant by a district attorney or the Attorney General to assist in the apprehension of a defendant.”
The San Benito County Sheriff’s Office was to hold a press conference at 10 a.m. today, but it was canceled.
Rodrigues could not be reached for comment today, and one of his attorneys, Mike Pekin, declined to comment.
“I still cannot talk,” Pekin said when reached on his cell phone today.
