[PHOTO CREDIT: Lake County Sheriff’s Office]
[Original Publish Date: 04/28/20]
TAVARES, Florida — A disgraced former Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputy who bonded out this month for sex crime offenses involving children turned himself in Thursday on a warrant accusing him of two counts of unlawful sex with a minor.
Jose Manuel Rodriguez, 37, who was an LCSO road patrol deputy for four years, is alleged to have met several teenage girls while on duty in the Minneola area. Rodriguez would then recruit the girls to work for him at his second, off-duty job with the ISN Corporation, a contractor with the US Food and Drug Administration. The company verifies businesses’ compliance with state tobacco laws, LCSO Lt. John Herrell said at the time of Rodriguez’s first arrest. The teenage girls were used to attempt to make tobacco purchases around Central Florida. Three girls, who met Rodriguez on duty, told detectives he offered them the opportunity to make money to perform in pornographic videos from 2016 through 2019 when they were 16 and 17 years old. On April 7, Rodriguez was arrested on three counts of solicitation to commit a sexual performance by a child.
According to the latest probable cause affidavit, in 2018, Rodriguez, who was 35 at the time, recruited a 16-year-old girl to make tobacco purchases for him after pulling her over on a traffic stop. Sometime between Jan. 4, 2018 and March 28, 2018, the pair was on their way home from work in Rodriguez’s vehicle when the girl fell asleep. She awoke to finding her pants unbuttoned and Rodriguez’s hand down her pants, touching her inappropriately. The victim told him to stop and he did not; she pushed his hand away and got out of the vehicle.
In the second incident, sometime between March 28, 2018 and July 30, 2018, Rodriguez and the same girl, who had turned 17, were working again and stopped at Rodriguez’s home. He allegedly invited her inside the home and his bedroom and touched her inappropriately. He is accused of removing her clothing and placing her on the bed and filming himself touching the girl. Rodriguez stopped when the girl asked him to, but then retrieved a sex toy from the closet he said belonged to his girlfriend. The victim said, “she didn’t want anything to do with that,” and Rodriguez put it away.
On April 8, in a search of Rodriguez’s home, the sex toy described by the girl was found in the bedroom closet.
A warrant was issued for Rodriguez’s arrest Thursday. He turned himself in at the Lake County Jail Thursday, and was released the same day on $30,000 bond.
Rodriguez has been fired from LCSO and plans to appeal his termination, LCSO Sgt. Fred Jones told Lake Legal News in an email.
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Our Editor-in-Chief, Marilyn M. Aciego, began writing for Lake Legal News in 2010. Born and raised in Lake County, she is a graduate of Umatilla High School and Lake-Sumter State College. She started her journalism career at LSSC, where she was editor of both student publications, The Angler and The Odyssey. Her professional career began at the Daily Commercial in 2004 where she covered cops and courts the majority of her time there until she left in 2009. Currently, along with being Editor-in-Chief of Lake Legal News, she is the Florida bureau chief for an international media organization. She has made more than two dozen appearances on live national television, including Nancy Grace and the Greta Van Susteren show, along with her appearance on Evil Twins. Contact her with breaking news, tips, and feedback by sending an e-mail to 352Tips@gmail.com. You can also contact us on our Facebook page — and make sure you “Like” and “Follow us” there. [PHOTO CREDIT: Bonnie Whicher]
