Child sex predator convicted on federal charges | Local News

Once his prison sentence is completed, Rodriguez will be placed on supervised release for 10 years and must register as a sex offender.

Federal law states that enticement of a minor occurs when a person, using the mail or other means of foreign or interstate commerce, “knowingly persuades, induces, induces, or coerces any person who has not attained the age 18, to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person may be charged with a criminal offense or attempts to do so.

The charge carries a minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Rodriguez was also initially charged under state laws, including four counts of first-degree criminal sexual penetration of a minor and one count each of first-degree kidnapping, solicitation of child abuse and tampering with evidence.

In December 2022, the state's charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can refile the charges at a later date.

Between September and November 2021, Rodriguez contacted several girls, communicating with them via Snapchat and paying them to engage in sexual activity with him.

Rodriguez was arrested on November 18, 2021, after taking a 12-year-old girl to his apartment earlier that day. The girl, with whom Rodriguez had sex twice, agreed to spend time with him in exchange for $1,000.

Court records indicate that that day, Rodriguez allegedly picked up the girl from one of his friends' homes and drove her to his 1200 block of North Main Street.

At the apartment, the girl and Rodriguez had sex before putting her clothes back on and falling asleep. The girl later woke up to find she was undressed and Rodriguez was performing sexual acts on her.

Later, while Rodriguez was in another room, court records say the victim called her sister and informed her of what had happened and where she was.

The victim then told Rodriguez about the call, and he panicked, rushing the girl out of the apartment and dropping her off near the house of one of his friends.

Police then went to Rodriguez's apartment, where for 15 minutes he refused to come to the door or leave the apartment. When he came out, court documents say Rodriguez was wet, as if he had just taken a shower.

In addition to the victim in this case, court records allege there were at least two other girls with whom Rodriguez communicated on Snapchat and engaged in sexual activity in 2021 in exchange for money. Among them was a girl he had met two or three years before on Snapchat.

When later questioned by authorities, one of the girls from that encounter said she met Rodriguez when she was 10 or 11 years old.

She recounted a time when Rodriguez texted her and told her to look outside her residence, where she discovered him sitting outside in his car.

Rodriguez allegedly persuaded the girl and one of her friends to get into the car, where he provided them with money in exchange for sexual activity with him.