MADERA, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — A striking moment unfolded in Madera court on Monday as woman after woman recounted the abuse they suffered at the hands of Gregory Rodriguez.
“You raped me,” Nicole said. “You raped me while I was serving a life sentence as a juvenile offender.”
Nicole is a former prisoner. Rodriguez was a correctional officer.
“You wore the uniform,” Nicole said. “You had the keys, the power. You used it not to protect, but to prey.”
Rodriguez is convicted of more than 60 counts of sexual assault. He abused women for years at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
Madera County District Attorney Sally Moreno says the assaults involved at least nine inmates.
“These women are convicted felons, but that doesn’t make them less deserving of dignity and less deserving of respect,” Moreno said.
But Rodriguez’s side rejected the victims’ pain. His sister, Linda, called him “a great role model” to her kids and questioned the victims’ claims.
“Why go back a second and a third time?” Linda. “They could’ve refused after the first time. I’m sure they shared with their cellmates what happened, and yet nobody else could verify their stories.”
Rodriguez did not apologize for what he did and instead branded the victims as “inmates” and dismissed their accounts as “stories.”
Prosecutors are now pursuing the maximum sentence of 224 years, as Rodriguez asks for 56.
“Nobody should ever be afraid for their bodily integrity, and these women, these victims, should not have had to endure what they endured,” Moreno said. “And to try to minimize that, it’s egregious.”
When Rodriguez returns to court in August, he will hear from two other victims, who will have the final word before he is sentenced.
