Posted on 12/12/2003 7:06:18 AM PST by Theodore R.
Suspect in missing girl's case a native Laredoan
By The Associated Press
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., the man suspected in the disappearance of Dru Sjodin, has been accused of sex crimes before and was a native Laredoan.
He wasn't always convicted though.
In 1979, he sat in front of a jury facing charges that he followed a woman from a department store to her car and forced her at knifepoint to drive to a remote gravel road.
The victim told police Rodriguez raped her twice before ordering her to drive him back.
The jury heard testimony and returned a not-guilty verdict, averting a return to state prison for Rodriguez, already a convicted rapist.
Rodriguez, a native Laredoan, moved to Crookston with his parents in 1963. After dropping out of Crookston's Central High School his sophomore year, Rodriguez worked farm-related jobs for a time.
He first ran afoul of the law in 1974, pleading guilty to separate accounts of attempted rape and aggravated rape and was sentenced to prison for up to 15 years.
In one of the crimes, a woman told police she gave Rodriguez a ride home after he approached her while she sat in a parked car. After she pulled into a driveway, she said, Rodriguez grabbed her by the throat and forced her to submit to sexual contact.
A month later, another woman told police Rodriguez approached her when she was having difficulty starting her pickup. Showing her a 6-inch knife, he ordered her to drive to a remote site east of Crookston and raped her, the woman said.
In 1975, Rodriguez enrolled in a sex offender treatment program at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter. A psychological report prepared by the hospital said Rodriguez "seems to be attracted to stories of seemingly justifiable violence."
The report also said Rodriguez admitted to having an alcohol problem, but said he had learned to control it. Test results suggested he had a need to be seen by others, and perhaps himself, as an "unusually virtuous person." When faced with frustration, he may become aggressive or impulsive, often out of proportion to the reality of the situation, according to the psychological report.
Rodriguez also told an evaluator he was sexually aggressive but could control his feelings. Psychiatrists tested Rodriguez every six months after he arrived in St. Peter.
By 1978, Rodriguez was out of the state hospital and had moved to Mankato.
After he was acquitted in the 1979 attack near Mankato, Rodriguez said at a later court hearing, he lost his job and home. With nowhere else to go, he checked himself back into St. Peter.
He left the hospital in April 1980 and returned to Crookston on furlough. Four days later, Rodriguez attacked a woman walking in her neighborhood.
Wayne Swanson, who prosecuted Rodriguez in that case as the Polk County attorney, said Rodriguez stabbed the woman when she fought him. The woman got away, and Rodriguez was later arrested with the help of a sketch the woman made, he said.
A jury convicted Rodriguez on charges of attempted kidnapping and first-degree assault in June 1980. At Rodriguez's sentencing hearing, Swanson asked Judge Warren Saetre to consider Rodriguez's criminal history. The judge proceeded to impose a 20-year sentence consecutive to time Rodriguez hadn't served in the 1974 convictions.
"Even with the time at St. Peter I am extremely concerned that the defendant is a great danger to society," Swanson said during the hearing. "I think that the pattern - I wouldn't want to see the next step - I'm very concerned about that."
During the hearing, Rodriguez told the judge that an older woman had molested him as a child and he had dabbled in acid and marijuana. He admitted an addiction to alcohol and reflected on his 1974 crimes, saying, "I had a bad idea of my sexual identity at the time."
This week, Swanson told the Fargo Forum that he sought a civil commitment hearing for Rodriguez a few years ago. The state ultimately didn't recommend commitment.
"All I know is he didn't hurt anybody for 23 years," Swanson said.
On Friday, investigators found about a three-hour gap between the time a North Dakota college student disappeared and the time the suspect in the case arrived home, according to a search warrant unsealed Thursday.
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. was at the Crookston, Minn., home he shares with his mother about 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 22, Delores Rodriguez told police, according to the Dec. 2 search warrant.
Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old student at the University of North Dakota, was last seen that day in Grand Forks, about 25 miles west of Crookston. About 5 p.m., she had spoken to her boyfriend via cell phone from the parking lot of the mall where she worked.
An affidavit unsealed Tuesday showed Rodriguez told authorities he had watched a movie, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," at the mall during that time, but authorities said that movie was not playing at the mall or anywhere nearby that day.
When confronted, Rodriguez "did not have an explanation" for the fact that the movie he named wasn't showing, according to the officer who applied for the search warrant. Its contents were first reported by The Forum of Fargo.
The search warrant showed Rodriguez cooperated with an initial search of his car Nov. 26, but refused a second search and asked for a lawyer. Police raided his house nine hours later.
Among the items seized were receipts from stores near the Columbia Mall time-stamped Nov. 22, swabs of "apparent blood" from the garage floor and three latex gloves from his car trunk, the papers unsealed Thursday show.
Rodriguez, 50, has said he is innocent. Charged with kidnapping, he is jailed in Grand Forks on $5 million bond.
National Guard troops plan to start a three-day search for Sjodin using Humvees to reach isolated areas and wearing insulated clothing. Recent bitterly cold weather has made search conditions too dangerous for civilian volunteers.
Only fours years after receiving a 15 year sentence for rape. Disgusting.
Many people are in denial about such as Rodriguez. If you can't execute or keep 'em locked up -- then to get back on the street, shouldn't they first be emasculated?
What a pathetic statement. How many years was he in jail during those 23 years? How much time did he get to plot during those 23 years...There may be no evidence he was violent in either mental hospital or jail but I bet he was and that will come out... Poor Dru, so sad that she was let down by the legal system and I bet she is not his only victim..he just got caught again....
This guy is a waste of air. I have known or become acquainted with others like him, and been violated personally by their actions. I am a pure proponent of the death penalty and its swift, PUBLIC use for people like this...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.