The California Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a now-former Los Angeles police officer convicted of raping a woman while he was off-duty about a decade ago.
The state’s highest court on Wednesday denied a defense petition asking it to review the case of William Alexander Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, now 39, is serving a six-year prison term for the Aug. 16, 2015, attack on the then-25-year-old woman.
In a May 29 ruling, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that a judge erred in excluding evidence that the defense wanted to present in an effort to attack the victim’s credibility.
At Rodriguez’s August 2023 sentencing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba said Rodriguez committed a “forcible, violent act” and was a sworn police officer — albeit off-duty at the time — and left the victim “crying and bleeding” without any transportation near an area known for prostitution.
“Mr. Rodriguez’s intent was clearly to get away with it,” Torrealba said.
The judge also ordered Rodriguez to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and not to have any contact with the victim for a decade. Torrealba also rejected the defense’s bid for a new trial and told the defendant near the end of the hearing that she hoped he would use his time behind bars to reflect on his actions and to take responsibility for them.
Rodriguez –who testified in his own defense — was convicted in June 2023 of forcible rape in connection with the attack on the woman, who told jurors that she left a Hollywood nightclub after drinking a significant amount of alcohol and agreed to accept a ride from Rodriguez in an effort to find her truck in South Los Angeles, according to the prosecution’s sentencing memorandum.
“Defendant eventually drove her to a secluded location in the middle of the night, not far from a well-known prostitution track on Figueroa Street, where he forcibly raped her before throwing her out of his car and fleeing the scene,” Deputy District Attorneys Lana Barnett and Natalie Schachner wrote in requesting the six-year prison term. “She was left injured and bleeding, begging strangers for help.”
The woman, referred to only as “Jane Doe 1,” was a virgin, and Rodriguez told jurors during his trial that he had consensual sex with the woman, according to the prosecution’s sentencing memo.
Rodriguez’s trial attorney, James Blatt, countered that his client had “lived an outstanding life in many regards,” saying he had served as a U.S. Marine before joining the Los Angeles Police Department.
In the defense’s sentencing memorandum, Blatt wrote that “Mr. Rodriguez executed extremely poor judgment, and the circumstances leading to the incident are unlikely to recur.” He asked for the lesser sentence of three years in state prison, echoing a request made by one of the defendant’s sisters in a letter to the judge for the “minimum sentence.”
Jurors acquitted Rodriguez of a charge of rape of an intoxicated victim involving the 2015 attack, along with a separate charge alleging that he raped a female acquaintance at his home in November 2018.
Authorities said police investigating the alleged attack in 2018 entered Rodriguez’s DNA into the state’s DNA database, resulting in a “cold hit” notification involving the 2015 attack.
Rodriguez was relieved of his police powers when he was arrested in 2019. He has since been terminated by the LAPD, according to his trial attorney.
He was released on bond shortly after his arrest and then was ordered to be taken into custody again after the jury’s verdict.