By Esmeralda Figeroa and Alexandra Quilici
The trial resumes for a man accused of rape and torture
By Esmeralda Figeroa
On Wednesday morning, the trial reconvened for Elmer David Rodriguez. The defendant is currently being charged with multiple felonies which include rape and torture.
Deputy Public Defender Monica Brushia began by questioning the complaining witness, the alleged victim, about two previous abortions. According to text messages that were exchanged between the witness and the defendant, the witness became pregnant in August of 2016. She terminated the pregnancy after kicking the defendant out of her home for speaking to other women. However, she and the defendant continued to have consensual intercourse. During December of 2016, the defendant wanted to end his relationship with the witness.
However, the witness was unwilling to end the relationship and offered the defendant money in exchange for sexual intercourse. Shortly thereafter, the witness became pregnant for the second time. She testified that, throughout both pregnancies, the defendant never stopped talking to other women. The witness also indicated that she didn’t want to lose the defendant to another woman. Eventually, the witness terminated the second pregnancy during mid-February of 2017.
According to multiple letters that were written in 2016 by the complaining witness to the defendant while he was in prison, the witness expressed urgency to have violent consensual intercourse with the defendant 
upon his release. In the same letter written on 2016, the witness stated she wanted to be “manhandled” by the defendant. Ms. Brushia asked the witness if she participated in violent acts while having sexual intercourse with the defendant or any other man, and the witness replied, “Yes I would.”
Ms. Brushia asked the complaining witness if she allowed the defendant to bite her and hit her during sexual intercourse, and she replied, “Yes.” Brushia also asked the witness if she had sexual intercourse with the defendant the day of the alleged incident, to which the witness replied, “Yes, oral sex.” The witness testified that during oral intercourse the defendant was slapping her on the face, yet she made no attempt to stop him. On the day of the alleged incident, February 14, 2017, according to the witness the defendant beat her while driving from Davis to Sacramento.
The complaining witness also alleged that the defendant had stolen her phone after the incident. However, phone records presented by Ms. Brushia showed that the witness and the defendant continued to exchange text messages on the day of the alleged incident. In a text message presented by Attorney Brushia, the witness had threatened to ruin the defendant’s life, after finding out he was dating other women.
Ex-girlfriend testifies in on-going assault case
By Alexandra Quilici
A new witness was brought forth in the assault case against Elmer David Rodriguez. The 25-year-old woman dated Rodriguez for about a year and a half, and the entire relationship was fraught with physical and emotional abuse. The witness met the defendant at Woodland Community College in January of 2014, and the two started dating that March.
The witness started to notice changes in Rodriguez during the middle of summer. He had a short temper and would get very angry with her over trivial matters. He started breaking her personal possessions like her hair straighter and cell phone, marking the first signs of his aggression.
This quickly escalated into his being physical with her. He began by poking her really hard in the chest while they were in bed. Rodriguez would jab his fingers and leave bruising. Photographic evidence was shown of the witness’ exposed chest, showing bruised discoloration on her breast.
At the time this was happening, Rodriguez lived in an apartment with his mother and three little sisters, while the witness lived with her parents. All the abuse would take place at his place, in the car, or away on vacations.
After the jabbing began, Rodriguez began to become more violent and aggressive. He would abuse his girlfriend by kicking her and punching her in the legs and rib cage area. She testified that after a physical altercation he would force her to smoke marijuana. She said he would get in her face and demand “f—ing smoke it before I slap you.” The witness guessed that it was a way for him to control her and make her relax after physical abuse.
On their first away trip together, in August of 2014, the two headed to Las Vegas and stayed at a hotel room. The defendant got upset with her (arguments were trivial; for example, over the defendant not being able to find his socks and blaming her) and he poured an entire gallon of water over her and pushed her. He then threw her down on the floor where she hit her head on a table. He got mad at her tears and claimed, “I didn’t mean for you to hit your head. You did that.”
Also during that summer, the two played basketball together outside. It was a very hot day when they went back upstairs to his apartment. She noticed he had a text from another girl and she asked him about it. Angry, he told her she could not sit on the bed because they had just played basketball and made her sit on the floor. Then, he told her she could not drink water because she “did not deserve” water. The girl who texted him was a previous girlfriend, who has already testified in this trial, and the text was not about getting her stuff back, as Rodriguez claimed.
In other instances that the witness recounted, Rodriguez would beat her up and then throw her, fully clothed, into the shower and turn it on. He would kick and stomp on her and then leave her in the shower for 10-15 minutes depending on his mood. After this abuse occurred several times, she would never say anything during the beating because it only made his anger worse.
The first few times the abuse occurred she would cry “stop” and he would either disregard it or become angry that she was being too loud. The abuse would regularly occur when his family was home. Only one time did a family member ever acknowledge what was happening. The oldest of his three little sisters knocked on the door and begged, “Can you please stop?” To which he responded, “Get the f— out before I beat your ass.”
The worst injuries the witness recalled getting was a particularly hard knee to her leg, where she was then dragged to the shower and punched in the back of the head. She could feel the lumps on her head. Whenever instances like this occurred, she would have to spend the night because she could not walk home and he did not want her parents to see her afterwards. Her parents did not know any of this was happening.
Toward the end of the relationship he slapped her so hard she fell off the bed and got a black eye. He also took a household cleaner from his bathroom and sprayed it in her face two to three times. When she tried to block it with her arm he said, “Don’t f—ing try to cover your face,” and then sprayed her another two to three times. He wouldn’t let her touch or wash her face for five minutes.
During the course of the relationship, he broke her phone seven to eight times. She would have to sneak without her parents’ knowledge and purchase a new one as quickly as possible so they would not get suspicious. Her parents did show concern, especially because she lost a significant amount of weight due to stress. She felt as if she was always walking on eggshells and would never know if the day would be a normal day, or an angry day.
The witness emphasized the trivialness of how he got angry by explaining that one time he was driving and she saw a pedestrian out of the corner of her eye and said, “Oh, watch out!” He got frustrated that she would correct him or assume he was a bad driver and started screaming at her. She began crying which made him angrier. He demanded that she smile for the rest of the car ride (20 minutes) and that she had to show her teeth the entire time. He threatened that if he did not see her teeth he would pour orange juice all over her.
In another car ride, the victim brought up a girl she had seen him searching on Facebook. He turned to her and said, “You just f—ed this whole day up” and hit her so hard that she said it “took the life out of her.” She tried to run from the car, but he put her hands on her face. She didn’t scream for help because she was terrified that no one would hear and come to her, and she would have to deal with his anger over her screaming for help.
Rodriguez told the witness that his mom actually confronted him and told him he had to keep the noise down because the neighbors were starting to question. She had no relationship with his family because she was always kept in his room.
Oftentimes, after the abuse took place, he would want to have sexual intercourse. In one instance, he grabbed a lint roller and put it inside her anus. He was simultaneously choking her and yelled, “You wanna break up now b—h? It would be worth killing you.” At this point, she was afraid for her life but did not leave the relationship. He would also insist on her performing oral sex on him, and would (she believed) secretly record her.
The abusive nature of their relationship was exposed on May 8, 2015. The witness went out drinking with a female friend. She called Rodriguez and asked for him to come pick up her and her friend, as she did not want to drive her mom’s car. When he got there, he was angry and her friend refused to get into the car with them because she was afraid of Rodriguez.
The witness began to drive away with Rodriguez, leaving the friend behind, however she was upset and wanted to go back for the friend. He dropped her back off, and angry, he keyed her mom’s car. The witness felt that this move “outed” the true nature of their relationship. Angry, she tried to push Rodriguez and he retaliated by throwing her face down onto the ground.
Her friend started screaming and he left with all the witness’ personal belongings. She, for the first time, broke down and told her friend the true nature of her relationship with the defendant. The friend insisted that she call her mom. Rodriguez disrespected the witness’ mother and told her he did not have any of her daughter’s personal belongings, and it took the witness’ father to retrieve the keys to the keyed car.
After this, the two broke up and cut contact for two weeks. She told her mom of the abuse that she had endured and that “if you don’t help me leave, I might stay.” Her mom made arrangements for her to move out of the state the very next day.
In the two weeks they were broken up, he contacted her relentlessly that he would change for her and that he would be a different person if they go back together. She met up with him, hopeful of his promises. Within five minutes, she teased him that he was procrastinating on his homework assignments and he started beating her up. She was devastated that his promises were all lies.
Two days before she left, they met again. She asked him about a girl he had been talking to and he slapped the side of her face really hard and she fell off the bed. The day before she left, she met up with him again in a public park and he said something extremely mean to her. She slapped him (for the first time) and he spit in her face. She then immediately left while he tried to follow and apologize.
Out of time, court adjourned for the day and the witness will continue her testimony on Friday.
Come see the Vanguard Event – “In Search of Gideon” – which highlights some of the key work performed by the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office…
