NEW ROCHELLE ― A Westchester County teenager has broken her silence in a shocking sex assault case. She told CBS 2 HD exclusively a New Rochelle cop took advantage of her at the moment she most needed help.
For eight months she stayed silent -- even as her credibility was questioned by attorneys. But now, the teen who accused New Rochelle Police Sgt. David Rodriguez of sex assault wants to tell her side of the story.
"I don't feel safe. I'm scared," the teen told CBS 2 HD. "Cause I don't know what's going to happen."
She understands English but speaks mostly in Spanish. On Feb. 8, she was 17 and living with the 35-year-old father of her baby boy.
That night Rodriguez supervised as New Rochelle Police arrested the boyfriend for threatening her. Rodriguez returned after his shift ended at midnight.
"He told me that people like me with domestic violence situations have a lot of help in this country," the teen said.
But, the teen said, Rodriguez quickly turned "flirty."
"He asked, 'Don't you think I'm sexy?'" she said, adding her fears started to grow. "Cause his face didn't show me someone like he want to help me."
The teen said she felt intimidated as Rodriguez held his holstered gun near her head several times.
She said she pushed him away telling him "no."
"Yes, I did … many times. My baby was there, too," she said.
The teen said Rodriguez sexually assaulted her while her baby slept in a crib just a few feet away.
"He told me, 'Just take it as a nightmare and tomorrow when you wake up this will all be in the past,'" the teen said through a translator.
Thirty-six hours later she reported the assault. After a three-week investigation Rodriguez was arrested.
His wife, a local TV news anchor, stood by him. When Sgt. Rodriguez was arrested and he came to court, his wife came with him and afterwards she stood there and she defended him.
"I believe him. I love him and he's innocent, 100 percent," Darlene Rodriguez said back on March 19.
"I felt sorry for her," the teen said. "Overall, it's not her fault. It was actually her husband that pushed himself on me, so, you know, she believes her husband, but it's not my fault and I feel sorry for her."
Last month, the serious felony charge against Rodriguez was dropped. He pleaded guilty to official misconduct. The teen said she thinks he got off easy, but agreed to the deal to avoid the trauma of testifying.
Rodriguez resigned from the force three months ago. His lawyer and the teen's lawyer have been negotiating. A six-figure settlement has been discussed, and rejected.
The teen is likely to file a civil suit soon.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/david.rodr ... 47617.html
September 27, 2008
The husband of WNBC/Channel 4 anchor Darlene Rodriguez admitted yesterday that he misused his police badge to have sex with a teen - and it wasn't the first time he ran around on his wife, a law-enforcement source told The Post.
Detectives in New Rochelle found former Sgt. David Rodriguez, 37, used his job for hanky-panky in a number of other incidents that didn't amount to crimes, the source said.
"He was a known Lothario," the source said. "This isn't like a one-time thing or a set-up or a bad decision. He wasn't a nice guy."
But Rodriguez's wife was standing by her man yesterday after he was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to stay away from the victim for five years.
The "Today in New York" co-anchor went so far as to chew out a rival TV reporter for asking her husband if he had apologized for his infidelity.
Darlene Rodriguez obtained a cellphone number for WABC-TV correspondent Michelle Charlesworth and called her immediately after Charlesworth's report aired at noon, a source told The Post.
"She called her 'unprofessional' and 'out of line,' " the source said.
Charlesworth responded by telling Rodriguez, "I know this is an emotional time for you, but I think your anger is misplaced," the source said.
Reached by phone, Darlene Rodriguez declined to discuss the incident or allegations of infidelity, but issued a statement saying, "David and I have a tremendous amount of love in our marriage, and we'd like to get on with our lives as a family."
The married couple lives in Westchester County's leafy Croton-on-Hudson, where they're raising three children.
Rodriguez, a highly decorated nine-year veteran of the New Rochelle Police Department, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct in a plea bargain with Westchester prosecutors.
A spokesman for Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore declined to discuss the deal.
Rodriguez was initially charged with first-degree rape in the incident involving a 17-year-old girl that took place several hours after he and other cops arrested her 35-year-old boyfriend for violating a protective order on Feb. 8.
The girl's lawyer said she would file suit against him and the police department.
"Officer Rodriguez and his wife were saying nothing happened and trying to make my client out to be a liar," lawyer Jonathan Damashek said.
"No longer can they make these misrepresentations."
New Rochelle Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll said Rodriguez resigned from his job on Sept. 19.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09272008/ne ... 130954.htm
