City Councilman Pleads Not Guilty to Assault
A La Puente city councilman has pleaded not guilty to seven felony charges alleging that he broke into his former girlfriend’s house and threatened to kill her and her new boyfriend.
Edward Rodarte, 26, a police officer for the Walnut Valley Unified School District, remained in jail Friday despite a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge’s decision to reduce his bail from $1 million to $500,000.
Prosecutors allege that Rodarte broke into the East Los Angeles home Sunday through an open window and waited for the couple.
About 3 a.m., “when the victim and her boyfriend went to go to bed, Rodarte came out of the bedroom closet, pointing a gun, saying he was a member of the Mexican Mafia,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Candace Foy Smith. “ ‘Don’t move or I’ll kill you,’ [Rodarte] shouted, and then a struggle ensued between him and the male victim, whom he attempted to strangle.”
When the woman turned on the light, Rodarte hit her and yanked the telephone from the wall, the prosecutor said.
He threatened to kill the couple if they went to police, Foy Smith said.
Rodarte, a Los Angeles police reserve officer and former La Puente mayor, is charged with two counts of assault likely to cause great bodily harm, three counts of making terrorists threats, burglary and cutting a utility line.
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