Deputy Guilty in Off-Duty Shooting

A sheriff’s deputy was convicted Wednesday of opening fire on a group of graffiti vandals in the Antelope Valley last summer while off-duty and then lying about it to his superiors.

It took jurors a day to find 34-year-old Bobby Rodriguez, a nine-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, guilty of assault with a firearm, gross negligent discharge of a firearm, shooting from a vehicle and filing a false report.

Rodriguez faces up to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 4 in Antelope Valley Superior Court. He has been suspended without pay from the Sheriff’s Department and is currently free on his own recognizance.

Rodriguez was accused of chasing after the taggers in his pickup truck last Aug. 31 and firing his service pistol at them several times, once while both cars were moving. Afterward, he called 911 and claimed that the graffiti painters had tried to carjack and assault him and had chased him.

Two independent witnesses testified that they saw Rodriguez chasing the taggers and heard multiple gunshots, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Seki said.

Rodriguez will probably not receive the maximum penalty but “should receive a significant sentence that includes state prison,” Seki said, because two of the taggers were grazed by bullets, although there was no reason for Rodriguez to shoot at them.

When peace officers “fire their weapon off-duty, the same ground rules exist as when they are on duty,” he said.

But Rodriguez’s attorney, Vicki Podberesky, said the taggers who testified against her client were “incredible gang members” with a motivation to assault her client. She also said she found it curious that Seki would claim that her client deserved state prison time after he had offered a deal that included no prison time.

“There are substantial issues for an appeal,” Podberesky said. “We will vigorously pursue one. Even in the light of the jury’s verdict, I believe my client is innocent.”

According to Lt. Joe Gutierrez, one of Rodriguez’s superiors at the Lancaster sheriff’s station, Rodriguez had been suspended for excessive use of force in 1992 but was reinstated following a civil action.

“It’s a very sad day for law enforcement,” Gutierrez said. “But this is evidence that nobody in this country is above the law.”