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Sheriff Curtis Hill said Mike Rodrigues knows he is wanted, District Attorney Candice Hooper still declined to discuss specific charges and the indicted ex-deputy’s whereabouts remained unknown as of press time Friday.
Hill discussed the possibility of asking a judge Monday to raise bail on the $300,000 arrest warrant.
“The clock’s ticking,” Hill said. “We’ll see what he decides to do.”
The sheriff said the allegations are serious and that the arrest warrant “is not going to go away.”
Hill also said if the 25-year sheriff’s office veteran leaves the state, he will ask federal authorities to help apprehend the former sergeant.
“This is not a game,” Hill said. “I’m not playing a game.”
Local authorities continued Friday searching for Rodrigues, who in recent months was under investigation for two rape allegations, violations of a court order to prevent domestic violence, stalking and intimidating a victim or witness.
Hooper said she has been directed not to disclose the charges against Rodrigues 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.”
Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for the California Attorney General’s Office, said it is traditional not to disclose charges before an arrest has been made after a criminal indictment.
“They had contacted our office, and we recommended not disclosing that information until an arrest had been made,” Lacy said from Sacramento on Friday.
An expert on open records law, however, disagreed with that interpretation of the law.
A California Newspaper Publishers Association attorney questioned why the District Attorney’s Office hadn’t disclosed charges against Rodrigues.
Attorney Jim Ewert said the public has a constitutional right to know what charges have been leveled against Rodrigues – and that San Benito County District Attorney Candice Hooper is misinterpreting the law by not doing so.
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 was able to 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.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate,” Pekin said. “We have to respect the system.”
