By Mengyu Yang
SACRAMENTO – Is putting a toddler in a house with dog feces and decaying mice in the kitchen child endangerment? How about using your child to engage in drug sales?
Sacramento County Superior Court Dept. 10 answered ‘yes’ to both questions this week.
Kristina Rodriguez and Kenneth Todd were charged with sales of drugs and for child endangerment. Two officers testified that at the time of the arrest 246 grams of methamphetamine were discovered inside a duffle bag, which was found within a closet in the bedroom—exactly where Todd was found at the time of his arrest with his toddler child.
One of the arresting officers, Officer Tera Carson, testified that the house was filthy. In the kitchen, there was garbage and dog feces on the floor; she also found a decaying mouse in one of the kitchen cabinets; and the fridge was full but many items had expired or perished.
Rodriguez’s other daughter, Anesia, told the police officer and the social workers two incidents relating to her mother’s drug dealing. In one incident, defendant Rodriguez took Anesia and her
toddler sibling to meet a woman.
While Anesia did not witness the exact moment that her mother handed the woman the Adidas duffle bag that had been in the car, Anesia saw her mother getting money from that woman and observed white residue.
Anesia told the authorities that she assumed it was a drug.
In yet another incident, the defendant, Rodriguez, instructed her daughter to take a bag and hand it to a guy coming to the door, take the money, and to take the money back to the dresser while Rodriguez was away from home. Anesia also asked Officer Carson about the pills Officer Carson found in her mother’s bra.
At the time of the arrest, Officer Carson found 94 grams of meth, $1,000 dollars in cash, and 165 pills including oxycodone in defendant Rodriguez’s bra. Since that information had not been disclosed to Anesia by the officers, Officer Carson asked why Anesia was asking the question. Anesia replied that is where her mother usually kept them.
Defendant Todd’s counsel sought to reduce the felony child endangerment to a misdemeanor child endangerment. He argued that even though the house was in poor condition, there was sufficient food for the kids.
Officer Carson herself poured the toddler some milk from the fridge on the day of the arrest. However, the court ruled that the unsanitary state of the house, the ages of the children, and the fact defendant Rodriguez used her children to engage in drug sales make the child endangerment offense felonious.
To sign up for our new newsletter – Everyday Injustice – https://tinyurl.com/yyultcf9
Support our work – to become a sustaining at $5 – $10- $25 per month hit the link:
