Deputy pleads guilty to assaulting prostitutes
An Orange County sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty Friday to falsely imprisoning prostitutes to sexually touch and photograph them under the guise of police work.
Richard Rodriguez, 44, of Chino was convicted of two felony counts of false imprisonment by fraud and deceit in Orange County Superior Court.
While in uniform, the deputy, assigned to the Orange County Transportation Authority, approached prostitutes along Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove between November 2005 and March 2007, according to Orange County prosecutors. Rodriguez would tell the women to get in his marked patrol car in order for him to check their identities in the law enforcement database, prosecutors said.
Three of the seven women involved in the case were handcuffed, said prosecutor Andre Manssourian.
Rodriguez would then drive the women to a dark Garden Grove parking lot, where he assaulted them or photographed them in sexual poses under the threat of arrest and jail, prosecutors said. He told the victims he would release them if they complied.
Rodriguez returned to one of the victims when off-duty, paying her $50 for sexual services.
The deputy was sentenced to one year and four months in prison.
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