Jury selection for the trial of Michael Rodrigues, a former
sheriff’s deputy accused of raping four women, has been pushed back
until the end of next week, according to court officials.
Preliminarily, jurors are set to come in Thursday. If everything
goes well, the trial should begin on Sept. 1 and is estimated to
last for two weeks. Most recently, the trial had been scheduled to
start Monday.
HOLLISTER
Jury selection for the trial of Michael Rodrigues, a former sheriff’s deputy accused of raping four women, has been pushed back until the end of next week, according to court officials.
San Benito County Superior Court Manager Nancy Iler said that jury selection is preliminarily set for Thursday.
“(They) are doing pre-trial motions right now, and we expect it to go until next Wednesday,” she said.
Preliminarily, jurors are set to come in Thursday. Iler said if “everything goes well,” the trial should begin on Sept. 1 and is estimated to last for two weeks. Most recently, the trial had been scheduled to start Monday.
Rodrigues, a 25-year sheriff’s office deputy, is accused or raping four women, with additional counts for unlawful sexual penetration and domestic violence, according to court documents. A grand jury in December 2007 indicted Rodrigues alleging he raped three women, while prosecutors added another suspected victim in September 2008.
This week, defense attorney Art Cantu contended that one of the four suspected victims has signed a declaration recanting her story. Deputy District Attorney Patrick Palacios told the Free Lance it doesn’t change the status of the case or whether the prosecution pursues convictions for all four allegations.
The trial will be presided over by visiting Judge Alan Hedegard after San Benito County Judge Steven Sanders was disqualified from the case. Workload issues, with only two full-time judges here, also led to the visiting Monterey County judge’s involvement.
