Bond Reduced For Officer Accused Of Molesting Girls
MIAMI - (CBS4) - A judge reduced the bond Tuesday for a Miami-Dade police officer accused of fondling at least two teenage girls as he conducted routine traffic stops.
Juan Carlos Rodriguez, 24, will now be held on $80,000 bond, which is nearly half the amount a bond court judge set on Friday of $150,000. His defense attorney Juan de Jesus Gonzalez said that even with the reduced bond, it would take some time before the family would be able to post it.
Once he posts bond, Rodriguez will be on house arrest and living with his live-in girlfriend, her 2 ½ year old son and her mother.
State Prosecutor Laura Adams expressed concern over the child living with them, but the judge said there was no evidence to prove the child would be in danger and had the child's mother testify who said she did not feel she or her son were in any danger.
Adams also said in open court that there were 9 victims, however, Rodriguez has been charged in two cases. Adams said other charges may follow -- but they may be misdemeanors. She said the state is still weighing its options.
According to the arrest warrant, Rodriguez conducted a traffic stop on January 7th at 10:30 p.m. at Southwest 88th Street and 157th Avenue. The warrant states Rodriguez ordered the driver of the car to pull behind a CVS drug store. He ordered all the passengers out of the car and then called back each person separately to sit inside the car.
Police say the first person he called back into the car was a 14-year-old girl whom he's accused of fondling by placing "his hands inside Victim 1's bra and fondled her breasts."
The second girl was also 14 and Rodriguez is accused of performing similar sexual acts on her. Two other young girls – both 16 years old – also made similar allegations.
Police say they interviewed the 19-year-old male driver of the car who said he did not see Rodriguez fondle the girls. He did state that the officer called "each of these females separately to the back of the car," according to the warrant.
The warrant says other allegation against Rodriguez surfaced including a claim by a 20-year-old woman who stated that "he ordered her to lift up her shirt and expose her breasts."
The warrant concludes that Rodriguez's actions were "not done in accord with police protocol, and served no legitimate police purposes. Rather, his conduct demonstrated that his touching of these young women was done with a lewd and lascivious intent."
Miami-Dade Police issued a statement Friday saying he had been relieved of duty days after the alleged incident on another matter. Police did not elaborate. Rodriguez allegedly told his sergeant that he wanted to go to Canada.
Miami-Dade Police say that anyone else who may have been a victim of Officer Rodriguez should contact the department as soon as possible.
"At this particular time, we want to reach out to the public and we want to request that if there is anyone that has come in contact with Juan Carlos Rodriguez at any point in time to give us a call, to give our Special Victims Bureau a call," detective Bobby Williams with the MDPD said. That phone number is 305-715-3300.
