'I did not kidnap' Sjodin

The Saint Paul Pioneer Press ^ | December 6, 2003 | Maria H. Gottfried and Phillip Piña

[Heatseeker]

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The man charged with kidnapping University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, missing now for two weeks, denies responsibility for her disappearance, his attorney said Friday.

"He came out and said, 'I did not kidnap her' " nor does he know her whereabouts, said David Dusek, the public defender handling Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.'s case, after meeting with his client for about 45 minutes.

There were also signs Friday that the investigation was being scaled back, though investigators and Sjodin's family remained optimistic.

"Dru, we're still looking for you, honey," said Allan Sjodin, the father of the 22-year-old Pequot Lakes, Minn., native. "We haven't given up on you. We'll find you."

He said the past two weeks have been difficult for Dru's family and the dozens of friends who have joined them in Grand Forks. They have searched the frozen countryside daily for any sign of the missing UND senior, all to no avail.

The family plans to re-evaluate its efforts and how it can best help authorities find Sjodin, her father said Friday afternoon.

Investigators looking for Sjodin may lose what cooperation they've had with their main suspect. Rodriguez, a repeat sex offender who was released in May after 23 years in, has told his lawyer he does not want to talk with police. His cooperation is seen as key to the team of investigators looking for Sjodin, believed abducted from a Grand Forks mall parking lot after she left work two weeks ago today.

"He is steadfast right now that he does not want to talk to the authorities," Dusek said Friday on the MSNBC cable television channel. "... I'm going to leave everything up to Mr. Rodriguez."

Rodriguez, 50, has had three interview sessions with investigators from the time he was transferred from Crookston — after his arrest Monday — to the Grand Forks jail Wednesday. He was appointed an attorney the next day.

"We have had conversations," said Grand Forks police Capt. Michael Kirby. But he would not characterize the talks as cooperative or not.

Police have yet to talk with Rodriguez since Dusek was appointed to represent him.

"Certainly we would like to talk to Mr. Rodriguez," Kirby said, but he acknowledged the suspect's right to counsel.

Peter Welte, the North Dakota state's attorney for Grand Forks County, said again Friday that his office wouldn't be making any deal with Rodriguez.

"If there's a dialogue, the dialogue is, 'Where's Dru?'" he said.

But prosecutors reversed themselves Friday by filing a notice that would release to the public evidence in court records against Rodriguez. The notice came after several news organizations, including the Pioneer Press' sister newspaper, the Grand Forks Herald, filed a motion with the court to unseal the documents.

"There's a lot of information and misinformation floating out there," Welte said. Despite efforts by authorities to keep the evidence confidential, some information has been reported.

Rodriguez's attorney has received 10 days to offer input on the release of the investigative information, Welte said.

"The most important thing is to preserve Mr. Rodriguez's rights, his constitutional rights," said Dusek, who added that he is researching unsealing the records and hopes to file a response the first half of next week.

Rodriguez was ordered held on $5 million bail Thursday, but Dusek didn't contest the high bond, saying Rodriguez agreed to remain in jail for his own safety.

After meeting with his client twice Thursday — in one visit, Dusek said he was working on building rapport with Rodriguez — Dusek visited him in jail Friday afternoon and went over the case against him for the first time.

Rodriguez, a convicted rapist the state of Minnesota classified as the most dangerous type of sex offender, faces a preliminary hearing Feb. 4 and arraignment Feb. 6.

Rodriguez is the only suspect authorities are focusing on, but they are not showing their cards.

However, sources close to the case told the Pioneer Press earlier this week that blood found by investigators in Rodriguez's confiscated car could well be that of Sjodin.

The sources also said that investigators who have interviewed Rodriguez found some of his responses to be "inconsistent." Rodriguez acknowledged that he was at the Columbia Mall but denied having any contact with Sjodin.

Allan Sjodin said Friday he's made no attempt to contact Rodriguez.

"We're going to allow the system to take care of Mr. Rodriguez," he said. On a local radio talk show, Sjodin asked the people praying for his daughter to also pray for the Rodriguez family.

Kirby said that as of Friday, 1,400 tips have been given to Grand Forks police about the case. She was last heard from Nov. 22, as she spoke to her boyfriend via cell phone from the mall parking lot.

There have been three mass searches the past two weeks, including one Wednesday that attracted 1,700 volunteers. There are no plans to mobilize more volunteers.

The official search Friday was in an area north of East Grand Forks, Minn., and was limited to law enforcement. Investigators' efforts over the next few days will focus on targeted hunts using information from tips, Kirby said.

The pace of the tips has slowed, noted Grand Forks police Sgt. Michael Hedlund. But authorities continue to review, prioritize and investigate all of them, he said. Law enforcement shares the optimism of the Sjodin family, Kirby added.

Kirby urged landowners in the region again "to take an extra second" to check their land and buildings for "anything of potential interest in this case."

Allan Sjodin said he believes his daughter is alive because "she has a magnetism and strength that I've always known since she was just a tiny little child. You know, I can see her waiting for us."

FYI

If you have information about the case, police ask you to call Grand Forks police at 701-787-8000 or your local law enforcement agency.

[Heatseeker]

If they have solid evidence that ties him to the crime, I think Mr Rodriguez should be made to understand that failure to cooperate might result in accidentally falling down a flight of stairs or two.

[StatesEnemy]

Naww... you don't want him dead. You want him in excruciating pain.

12volt lead cell to the testicles should do the trick

[Heatseeker]

Falling down stairs hardly ever kills anybody. But heck, your way is good too. :)

[WackyKat]

There's a name for what you're proposing.

It's called "lynching"

I prefer what the Constitution prescribes-due process

So did the Founding Fathers

[Williams]

If he kidnapped her this girl is most likely dead. A horrible tragedy committed by F'd up scum.

[Cicero]

I think there was a picture of her earlier, a lovely looking young girl. What a terrible business. And it really makes you wonder why the state is paying a Public Defender to tell the perp not to talk to the police. She's probably dead, but if not, what kind of responsibility is this lawyer taking onto himself by advising the perp not to talk?

[Salgak]

What kind of responsibility ? Ask a lawyer: their loyalty is to the client, not to the truth.

OTOH, we don't know for certain that it was this particular piece of human pond-scum that actually kidnapped her.

Remember the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping: the handyman they hounded who eventually died, and turned out to be innocent...

[LisaMalia]

There's a name for what you're proposing. It's called "lynching

Which may be much, much more humane than what he possibly did to this beautiful young woman. How would you feel if she were your daughter? Still be in favor of "due process?"

[auboy]

There's a name for a convicted rapist being turned loose on society.

It's called "insanity".

I prefer life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for law abiding citizens.

So did the Founding Fathers.

[Amelia]

She's probably dead, but if not, what kind of responsibility is this lawyer taking onto himself by advising the perp not to talk?

If she's dead, the best advice the lawyer could give Rodriquez is probably not to talk. However, if she dies because he doesn't talk and they don't find her in time, that would be much worse.

I don't like to say so, but I think she's probably already dead, and the lawyer knows it.

[spookycc]

Why didn't the police/FBI put Rodriguez under surveillance, and follow him, so he'd lead them to Dru? Am I missing some reason they didn't do this?

[Palladin]

Yeah, right.

Did Dru get due process from this filthy animal?

[ZULU]

We have all watched with anger and repugnance at apparently ONE MORE case of another victim falling prey to a repeat sexual predator.

Dru Sjodin, a young, beautiful, loving woman with a loving family and an full life ahead of her, has apparently fallen victim to Carlos Rodriguez, an individual with a long record as a sexual predator, an individual who refused "treatment" for his obsession while incarcerated, an individual who was, ONCE AGAIN, approved for release by YET ANOTHER psychiatrist who should have know better.

My prayers and sympathy go out to the family and friends of Ms. Sjodin, and I hope and pray by some miracle she is still alive and the Father of us all is protecting her.

While this heart-wrenching tragedy is unfolding in the upper mid-west, one of far too many instances of this kind, what, pray tell are our elected Congresspersons up to??????

Well, they passed a law requiring a special license to transport tigers, lions and big cats across state lines.

Thats right. They took the time to pass a law requiring a federal permit to move a lion or tiger, etc. across a state line. And why, pray tell? Becuase one idiot in New York was keeping a tiger and a crocodile in his apartment.

My point is not to argue the merit of a special permit to transport tigers. My argument is time, perspecitve and efficiency. How many Americans have been killed by tigers or lions or crocodiles in the past few centuries, aside from those actually handling them?? I can't recall ONE.

How many Americans, like Dru Sjodin, have fallen victims to violent sexual predators or paedophiles?? Countless numbers.

So what interests our overpaid, over-benefitted, practically-tenured Congressmen?? Tigers and crocodiles.

If you don't want to address a complicated, serious problem, generate a non-existant one and then provide a solution. It looks good in the papers. There is more croc in Congress than croc moving across state lines.

Sexual predators and paedophiles, people who have served notice on society that they are below a ravvenous beast on the scale of rationality, should NEVER get a second chance to re-enact their crimes. They should be locked up for life. It should be a FEDERAL CRIME to commit an act of sexual predation on another human being, using the same assumption that applies in cases of simple kidnapping - that the felon may very well cross state lines. And the penalty should be death or life in prison without parole.

Congress should start dealing with real issues, and leave tigers, lions, corcodiles and law-abiding gun owners ALONE.