By Rachel Wong and Mary Nguyen
Three Witnesses Testify Against Man Charged With Rape, Sodomy, and Domestic Abuse
By Rachel Wong
The ongoing trial for Elmer David Rodriguez reconvened Friday morning, October 27, 2017, in Department 11 with Judge Timothy L. Fall presiding over the trial. Three witnesses, including one alleged victim, testified against Rodriguez, accusing him of domestic abuse, torture and rape.
Testimony began with Deputy District Attorney Tiffany Susz questioning the first witness, an alleged victim and the ex-girlfriend of Rodriguez, whom he dated for about 16 months. They had met at Woodland Community College, however, Rodriguez eventually transferred to Sacramento State. The witness moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2015.
The witness revealed an incident that occurred on May 8, 2015, at about 2 AM involving her and Rodriguez, inside his car in a parking lot in Yolo County, where she claimed she attempted to run away after Rodriguez stated that “he was going to beat me upstairs.”
The witness attempted to leave his car but was followed by Rodriguez, who pulled continuously at her hair and carried her. Seeing that there were other people in the parking lot, Rodriguez continuously stated, “I’m just trying to talk to her.” However, the witness continued to yell for help and a bystander on a balcony heard her calls and offered to call the police. However, the witness “went back to her old habits” and was too afraid to let the woman call the police.
The incidents of the night of May 8 continued when the witness approached a young couple, asking for help. The interaction resulted in a brawl between Rodriguez and the man of the young couple, which resulted in 
the man hitting his head on a van. The witness did not go on to explain the state of the man after he hit his head. She then called her mother to pick her up, where Rodriguez followed her and asked her not to leave. However, the witness continued to leave with her mother.
Later that day, May 8, 2015, the witness filed a police report and pressed charges against Rodriguez at the Woodland Police Department with Officer Ben Yen.
Ms. Susz continued to question the witness, revealing other physically abusive incidents involving Rodriguez. The witness described an incident in which Rodriguez used a lighter to burn a “tattoo” on her left buttocks. Photos were shown as evidence, which depict burn marks made to spell out “DM.”
The witness described another incident that occurred in a park in which Rodriguez became angered and forced the witness to take her shoes off and continuously kicked at her shins. Another incident was described that occurred in a parking lot, where Rodriguez spit directly in her face.
The DA’s questioning also revealed that Rodriguez was attending anger management, while he and the witness were dating. However, she later discovered that Rodriguez was taking anger management because he had been arrested in December of 2012 for physically abusing a prior girlfriend. He was convicted of rape, sodomy and oral copulation.
The witness also accused Rodriguez of rape. Evidence of text messages between Rodriguez and her were exhibited, from April and May of 2015. The messages included the witness confronting Rodriguez about forcing her to have sexual intercourse with him through physical force.
Deputy Public Defender Monica Brushia, the defendant’s lawyer, cross-examined the witness. Brushia questioned the witness’ failure to include certain accusations, including rape, against Rodriguez in the police report that she filed on May 8, 2015. The witness continued to defend her actions by stating that she needed time to be able to speak up.
Photos of Rodriguez and the witness were exhibited, depicting both seemingly happy, in June of 2015. These photos also depicted the witness without bodily harm, which she had claimed she always had throughout their relationship. However, the witness stated that she was no longer in a relationship with Rodriguez during that time, therefore, he was no longer physically abusing her.
The testimony continued with the questioning of the second witness, an aunt of one of Rodriguez’s alleged victims, the complaining witness in this case. Deputy DA Susz’s questioning began with the witness’ knowledge of Rodriguez’s abuse. She stated that she often saw her niece wearing large flannels and concealing clothing, which was unlike her usual clothing. She found this behavior strange and off-putting.
On February 18, 2017, the witness’s niece was sent to the ER at the UC Davis Medical Center. The witness received a call from the victim, explaining that she was at the ER and also wanted to move out of state because “she had gotten into trouble and her mother would be very upset about it.” The witness and her sister, the victim’s mother, went to the ER, finding the victim suffering with great bodily harm. The witness described the brutal marks left on the victim’s body, including on her breasts: “You couldn’t see her areolas. Green, blue, and purple everywhere.”
The witness continued to reveal the victim’s explicit explanation of what had happened with Rodriguez. The victim had explained that she was held from her hair and beaten with a belt. She also disclosed that Rodriguez stomped her stomach because she was pregnant.
The third witness of the trial was this victim’s mother. The witness revealed that her daughter lost an immense amount of weight, while she was seeing Rodriguez. The prior witness had also testified that the girl had lost weight during her relationship with Rodriquez. In addition, the third witness disclosed that she often found bruises and bodily harm on her daughter, although her daughter would often attempt to hide the marks by wearing concealing clothing.
Additional Witnesses Testify in the Afternoon
By Mary Nguyen
On Friday afternoon, the trial resumed for Elmer David Rodriguez. The ex-girlfriend of the defendant’s friend was brought it as a witness. They (the witness and the defendant’s girlfriend at the time – the complaining witness in this case) worked together in 2015 and considered each other friends outside of the work place.
The witness was able to confirm the allegations of Rodriguez damaging his then-girlfriend’s mother’s car. The defendant refused to drive both his girlfriend and the witness back to their homes after the shops were closing. Rodriguez then began keying his girlfriend’s mother’s car. The witness stayed in the car while her friend went outside to confront the boyfriend. He responded by pushing her to the ground and calling her a “whore.” After this, he proceeded to get back into his car and he drove off.
The girls then called the police, where Detective Ben Yen responded to the scene.
Det. Yen was on patrol when he got a dispatch that a car was being vandalized. He photographed the damage to the car and was told that Rodriguez was the assailant. He asked if the defendant’s girlfriend wanted to press charges, but she said no. However, he was mandated by the law to press charges even if the victims of abuse don’t want to. She admitted to Detective Yen that there was prior abuse, but she didn’t want to elaborate as her mother was present. Yen proceeded to take photos of her injuries caused by Rodriguez. Yen stated that the defendant’s girlfriend felt safer after moving out of state, and then she felt that she could go forward in pressing charges.
The mother of the alleged victim in this case came to testify in court.
She stated that her daughter was in an abusive relationship with the defendant. She told the court that Rodriguez had other affairs with women and her daughter decided to end the relationship.
The alleged victim called her mother to ask her to change the locks on her door in August of 2016. The daughter left Rodriguez’s belongings in a box outside on the porch for him to pick up. While they were in the process of changing the locks, the defendant showed up. The witness asked Rodriguez to leave and he wanted to take the daughter’s bong from the patio. She initially told him it was okay and then changed her mind and asked him not to take it. He responded by spitting at her in the face five to six times. The witness then pushed him off the patio and spat on him. He flipped her off and left the property.
After this incident, the witness’ daughter admitted to being abused. However, weeks later the witness saw her daughter together with the defendant, which immensely upset her. She stated that her daughter began dating another man shortly after and was about to move to Los Angeles to be with him. However, she ultimately didn’t go. The defendant learned about the victim’s desire to move and sent her a letter stating he would change and would stop abusing her, and begging her not to leave. The witness told her daughter that the letter was full of false promises, but she replied, “Mom, I’m sorry.”
Later in their relationship the witness found out that Rodriguez broke her daughter’s phone. Since she had no form of communication, the mother gave her daughter her phone.
She also stated in January that she noticed her daughter was limping, walking slowly and in pain. However, when asked, the victim would not tell anyone what had happened to her. There were also multiple bruises on her arm, and she admitted that the defendant had caused those injuries.
On February 18, 2017, the witness was contacted by her sister that her daughter was in the hospital. Fortunately, the victim was still alive, but severely beaten by Rodriguez.
On February 20, 2017, they spoke to a Detective Guiro, from West Sacramento. The witness brought in her cell phone and allowed them to do forensic tests on the phone. It was also admitted that the victim was beaten consistently from the 14th of February to the 17th of February.
Det. Guiro was brought in as the next witness. On February 18, he went to the UCD Medical Center. He spoke to the victim and she was able to provide a license plate number for the defendant. He was able to retrieve the defendant’s cell ping to bring him in for questioning. He eventually located Rodriguez in Elk Grove, California, and took the defendant into custody. A warrant was also obtained for the defendant’s phone.
The victim eventually stated that she would like to drop the assault charges. Initially she told the detective that she wasn’t raped and did not want the assault charges to begin with. However, the detective listened to the facts of the case, and the facts pointed to rape. The University of Davis medical reports stated that the victim was raped. It was discovered that the victim still had feelings for the defendant. The detective stated he believes that she was minimizing or recanting, and it is common to find such behavior by victims of domestic abuse.
The People also stated that during the victim’s testimony in the preliminary hearing there were about ten college-aged individuals that attended court during the graphic descriptions of her recollections. The victim later admitted to the deputy DA afterwards that she felt ashamed to have to talk about it in front of strangers. She said she also felt like a burden when she found out her friends were subpoenaed and was worried that they would have to listen to the abuse she had endured.
The court adjourned and the trial will resume on November 6, 2017.
Come see the Vanguard Event – “In Search of Gideon” – which highlights some of the key work performed by the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office…
