Two sheriff’s office investigators took the stand in the
afternoon Tuesday in the rape trial against their former colleague,
Michael Rodrigues. They testified about one of the four suspected
victims and how she had told investigators in 2007 he had not raped
her before coming back a year later to allege he did.
By Colin McConville and Kollin Kosmicki
HOLLISTER
Two sheriff’s office investigators took the stand in the afternoon Tuesday in the rape trial against their former colleague, Michael Rodrigues.
Rodrigues, 48, is accused of raping four women between 1999 and 2007 and could face life in prison if convicted. He served in the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office for 25 years before being indicted on three of the charges in December 2007. Prosecutors added a fourth suspected victim, the subject of the Tuesday afternoon testimony, in the fall of 2008.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Keylon took the stand facing questions about statements one of the suspected victims – who contended she initially had lied to investigators in 2007 before coming back a year later to allege rape – made during a 2008 interview. The suspected victim last week testified to jurors that he had raped her in October 2006.
Defense attorney Art Cantu asked Keylon if the suspected victim said she had been in love with Rodrigues at one point, to which he responded “yes.”
Deputy District Attorney Patrick Palacios came back with a transcript of the interview and asked Keylon to read the original question.
“The question from me to her was, ‘Can you just explain to me why again you didn’t come forward?'” Keylon said, as he read from the transcript.
Palacios asked what she said prior to saying she had loved Rodrigues.
“She said: ‘I was terrified. I was terrified of him. I was terrified of you. And I was in love with Mike,” Keylon recalled.
Before Keylon testified, Sgt. Tony Lamonica was on the stand and spoke about his interview with the same suspected victim in 2007, before she came back later to allege rape. Lamonica conducted the internal affairs investigations for the sheriff’s office.
After getting the OK from visiting Judge Alan Hedegard to ask yes-or-no inquiries pertaining to specific portions of Lamonica’s grand jury testimony, Cantu asked whether the witness had told him Rodrigues never had been violent with her, whether she initially had reported he never used force on her and if she had told the investigator, “If I say ‘no,’ he knows I mean it.” Lamonica answered “yes” to all three questions.
Palacios in cross examination asked one question, if Lamonica was “present at the subsequent interview” with the witness, and he responded, “No, I wasn’t.”
Since the courthouse is closed today with a state-mandated furlough, the trial will continue Thursday. Hedegard also noted Tuesday how the defense has only two remaining witnesses to call and its case should be done Thursday. That would leave Friday for closing arguments, with the jury potentially entering into deliberations Friday or Monday.
Below is video of opening statements from the trial.
