Corpus Christi, Texas
A Corpus Christi police officer was convicted and sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for indecency with a child.
Raul Rodriguez, 47, originally faced three counts of indecency with a child, a second-degree felony. A jury convicted him on one count related to allegations that he touched a 12-year-old girl’s breasts during an ATV ride last summer.
He was acquitted on the other two counts — one that accused him of touching the 12-year-old girl’s genitals and the other related to a second accuser’s allegations. That woman has said Rodriguez touched her breasts when she was a girl in 2002.
The verdict was handed down after jurors deliberated for 3 1/2 hours.
Before Rodriguez was taken to jail, the 12-year-old’s mother had a few parting words for him. She said one minute changed her daughter’s life and then read pages from her daughter’s journal. The girl, now 14, wrote the journal entries after the ATV ride.
“When people ask me how I feel about myself, I tell them I don’t like myself,” she read. “I wish I could go hide in a corner somewhere. Why did Raul do this to me?”
The mother asked Rodriguez how he would feel if someone did that to his daughter.
Prosecutor Kim Gonzalez said she was happy with the verdict.
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