Judge Who Ruled in Elian Case Indicted Over Campaign Funds
A state judge who granted custody of Elian Gonzalez to a great-uncle in Miami has been charged with illegally accepting a $200,000 campaign contribution.
A two-count misdemeanor indictment issued Tuesday charged Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez with illegally accepting the money and failing to report it.
Defense attorney John Thornton Jr. said Rodriguez is innocent.
The nine-month investigation examined a loan to her 1998 campaign when she was first elected to the bench. She didn’t mention the money on one disclosure report but said on another that it came from her brother Hugo, an assistant federal public defender.
Hugo Rodriguez borrowed the money from Miami attorney K. Gabriel Bach, loaned it to his sister, and she loaned it to her campaign, the brother’s attorney, Howard Srenbick, said Wednesday.
Rosa Rodriguez entered the national spotlight in January when she ordered Elian to stay in Miami until a custody hearing could be held.
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