Denny's Free Grand Slam Breakfast Day Tuesday
Marina Yoga Studio Donates Old Mats for Haitian Relief
Prop 8 Trial Judge Is Gay; Should This Matter?
Muni Bus Nails a Fire Hydrant
Sarah Palin Calls Global Warming Studies 'Snake Oil' at NorCal Conference
Salvador Rodriguez, 21 (AP Photo/Richmond Police Department)
We brought this up briefly yesterday, but we thought it best to touch on it again. Salvador Rodriguez, 21, who was initially charged with the brutal rape and beating of the Richmond High School student wants to clear his name. He's come out to the media to talk about what he saw happen that night. And the details are pretty graphic.
According to authorities, 15-year-old Cody Smith was the one who lured the girl "to a secluded area of the campus where she began drinking with them." Rodriguez told KTVU, “I was there, sitting down (on a bench in the alleyway) minding my own business and I see this girl. She just walks around from nowhere; she didn’t hop no fence or nothing. She just went straight through the opening.”
Then, things got ugly. Rodriguez continues:
“Before she even sat down she drank half a bottle and I went, ‘Whoa.’ I never saw anyone do that before. She got up to throw up and everyone started going crazy. I tried to stop it, I told them, ‘Hey, man that’s not cool.’”Rodriguez said the group around the young girl saw someone who was drunk and vulnerable. According to the charges in the case, that group included Smith, Ari Morales, 16; Marcelles Peter, 17; and Richmond residents Manuel Ortega, 19; Jose Montano, 18; and Elvis Torrentes, 21.
“They saw someone who was vulnerable and they felt like attacking,” he said. “Let’s go for it. They didn’t say anything like that but that was their instinct. You could feel the vibe in the air. They were just a bunch of animals.”
The attackers then began removing the girl’s clothes, Rodriguez said.
“They started tearing them (the girl’s clothes) off and I tried to get them to stop,” he said. “They tried to take pictures, but I slapped the phone out of their hands…They were kicking her and beating her… I just remember hearing her screaming… They were saying, ‘Shut up bitch, stop screaming.”
After leaving the scene, Rodriguez returned to find the victim in the bushes. "I see it is a girl and she had clothes on but they were all ripped up,” he said. “She was covered with leaves and sticks and dirt. So I tried to grab her but she screamed. I told her I wasn’t going to hurt her.”
Even after being arrested, Rodriguez forgives the police officers who allegedly roughed him up during questioning. That was a little girl that his happened to. I would have beaten the guys up, too," he said.
Smith, Morales, Peter, Ortega, Montano, and Torrentes have all been charged. Peter's' family, if you recall, had nothing but bile to spew at Richmond police, claiming that they would sue to city of Richmond they their relative, who is black, is convicted of rape.
As of today, neither the Richmond school's principal Julio Franco (email) or assistant school principals Nancy Ivey (email) and Jose DeLeon (email), all of whom failed to hire proper security or personally check school grounds during the two-and-a-half-hour gang rape, have yet to resign.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
i guess hindsight is 20/20, but i'm surprised this guy didn't do more to report what was going to the authorities.
you're surprised that in a city where the catch phrase is "snitches get stitches" people were afraid to call the authorities?
in several of the reports on why witnesses didn't say anything it's noted that the witnesses were afraid to say or do anything because of who the attackers were. which is code for "they might kill you if you report them."
it's VURRY SIMPLE: if you're really so afraid of getting caught as a "snitch," you walk around the block, THEN call the police and tell them what's going on. i have no empathy for people who don't report an awful crime for fear of getting caught as a "snitch."
Should I feel any sympathy or compassion for this person?
this is a good question. i'm not sure, personally. i mean, he's making the media rounds, talking about how much all of this upset him. but by not calling 911 after leaving the rape scene... that's something he'll have to deal with the rest of his life.
would you prefer he not say anything? you can draw your own conclusion from there.
It seems like Mr. Rodriguez has made a calculation based on self-interest that the benefits of letting it be known that he didn't like what happened and tried (quite unsuccessfully) to stop it outweigh the negatives of displeasing those who participated in the gang rape, and their friends and family.
Don't forget that some of the suspects wore bullet proof vests at their arraignment. To me, that suggests there might be some dangerous people out there on the girl's side, as well.
“Don't forget that some of the suspects wore bullet proof vests at their arraignment. To me, that suggests there might be some dangerous people out there on the girl's side, as well.”
Or that could be a psychological ploy on the part on the prosecution / cops.
You have a bunch of kids in jail for the most serious crime they’ve ever been caught for. They’ve already spent a few nights in jail. They know they’re not going home anytime soon. They’re dressed in orange jumpsuits and are handcuffed to the waist and are coming out for their first arraignment. Want to rattle their cage some more? Put some bulletproof vests on them before they come out and see their families and say it’s for their own protection.
That’s just speculation on my part. I have no facts to back that theory up, but if I wanted those kids to talk more than they were already I’d probably do something like that.
He could have easily participated and not left any DNA evidence considering some of the ways the girl was assaulted and he could just be trying to save his own skin and reputation. Even if he didn't and left because he was threatened by the mob as he claims, things are just not adding up. An account given through a friend of his early on said he left before the rape started but in an recent 10 minute interview he admitted he was there when it began, described how it started and claimed he tried to stop it.
The thing that really raises my suspicions is that despite how long the attack took place and his claims he returned to help her why didn't he didn't call for help. How hard would it have been to anonymously tell someone at a local gas station or corner store or a passerby to call 911? Are there no payphones in Richmond?
If he is telling the truth, he must be going through hell over his failure to do more during the two and a half hours of brutality and if he isn't, he should be.
What is a 21-year-old doing hanging out at a high school anyway?
This guys story is bullshit. Is this what this country's come to? Its obvious this guy did not and still does not give a shit about what happened to that girl. He's relishing his moment in the spotlight. He's an opportunist. And, some people are celebrating him as a hero??! WTF?? He says he saw people starting to mistreat her and he walks away and does NOTHING! I don't care how bad your neighborhood is, report the freakin' crime. DO something. Grab a rock and start hitting people. Take your skateboard and bash someones head in. DO NOT gingerly walk back to the scene like some asshat to check it out again. He returned out of curiosity and interest, NOT out of geniune worry and concern. THAT is the problem.
We put him in the papers and on tv and on the internet as if he did anything to help her. He didn't. He helped escalate the situation but not doing ANYTHING to stop it. This is the culture of maturity and manhood that is being raised today. They feel no responsibility for their actions, even if its non-action that results in someone else's tragedy. They just sit and stare and watch it happen and walk away shrugging their shoulders and then when a camera's in their face they bask in the glory that they were present when it happened and that they vehemently disapproved of it, but what could they do... they were soooo scared.
They're all worse than animals. They are all inhuman.
interesting.
A. "left the scene"
then
B. "returned"
did he call 911 anywhere in between points A and B?
if not, I call bullshit.
I recommend that everyone click over to the full story, which adds details that put Rodriguez's actions in a broader context, and which at least have the feel of truth. I do think that those of us who appreciate urban culture-- graffiti, rap, organized political dissent-- have to accept that we have a part in this by putting the police in the role of the bad guys so often.
We don't accept that agriculture, public education, local politics, the legal system, and energy production are inherently corrupt, but for whatever reason we take a different attitude towards the role of the police in urban communities. There are plenty of progressive-minded college graduates who have become organic farmers, taught in the public schools through programs like Teach for America, become community organizers, volunteer with legal defense projects, and even experiment with alternative energies, but there's no equivalent movement of over-educated young people joining the police force to demonstrate how things could be done better.
I believe that Rodriguez felt threatened by the rapists, but the more important consideration is that he didn't think his community would support him if he called the police. If those guys came after him in broad daylight on a crowded street, would anyone intervene or call the police on his behalf? (The really tough question: would the victim have called the police on Rodriguez's behalf, if she saw those guys beating him nearly to death?)
I still think Rodriguez should have made the call and deal with the consequences later, but we can all contribute to helping the next guy make the right decision by engaging in the question of how we can reintegrate the police into the communities they serve.
lol what.
Brock, any reason you left out the detail that this guy says he gave the girl his t-shirt to cover herself up? If she was wearing his shirt when the police arrived, that would go a long way toward supporting his story, and help explain why he was released from jail.
because i'm a horrible human being.
“Brock, any reason you left out the detail that this guy says he gave the girl his t-shirt to cover herself up? If she was wearing his shirt when the police arrived, that would go a long way toward supporting his story, and help explain why he was released from jail.”
Yes. It very much would.
However, that shirt was never found.
I don’t have the links on me, but earlier stories have said that the cops have not found any shirt Salvador Rodriguez claimed to have given the victim anywhere near the crime scene.
SJ Mercury:
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13757134?source=most_viewed
"She calmed after that, he said. Rodriguez said he sat beside her and clothed her in his shirt, though police later found no such shirt at the crime scene. Rodriguez ran from the police during his arrest, during which officers used force to subdue him."
Not sure what that means. The girl was airlifted to the hospital; if they looked for the shirt after she was airlifted, and if he is telling the truth, then the shirt wouldn't still be on the scene. Time will tell, but I imagine the police had their reasons for releasing him from jail after they arrested him.
One thing I do know, maybe we should all stop speculating. The Mercury specifically says he ran from police during his arrest, the KTVU article Brock links above in the original post says, "Rodriguez, who turned himself into police, said he had no idea why he was arrested. He also claimed Richmond police roughed him up."
Which is it? Turning oneself in is different from running from police. Has he been charged with resisting arrest?
an' another t'ing: clearly Mr. Rodriguez isn't afraid of getting caught as a "snitch." with his 15 minutes of fame he's spending al ot of time implicating the other people involved. presumably these rapists' buddies are going to come after Rodriguez and kill him now? i doubt it. these were stupid horny high school students, no high ranking gang members.
Steve,
Thanks for backing me up with that link.
I think speculation is perfectly OK on this page. It’s a webpage, not a court of law. Use that freedom of speech while we still have it.
You are correct in noting that the victim was airlifted from Richmond High, but I don’t think that means all of the physical evidence there was lost. One of the first reports I read (and I haven’t heard it repeated much since then) was that several fresh used condoms were found at the crime scene.
If they could find used condoms I’m sure they could find a t-shirt, if it was there.
huh? community? agriculture? you lost me somewhere along the way to your point.
“Don't forget that some of the suspects wore bullet proof vests at their arraignment. To me, that suggests there might be some dangerous people out there on the girl's side, as well.”
Also, forgot to mention. –
If you go back and read that story you’ll see at that time that they still had not yet caught, or even mentioned, Elvis Torrentes, 21, who seems to be the ringleader of the attack.
Did you see a picture of that creep? He looks like the Night Stalker on steroids.
So that’s what it took for the jest of the crew to finally ID this guy, a couple of cold nights in jail with the implication that this is the safest place you’ll ever be right now and that you might get shot just for being in the courtroom.
Who is going to shoot you? Someone sympathetic to the girl?
Or the 21-year-old psycho with possible gang connections that’s still on the streets and facing life in jail?
Which ever the case, good job Richmond PD. Keep it coming.
still on the streets?
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_13731054
Not sure what "still on the streets?" is asking, but the timeline goes like this:
Rape on Oct 24th
Various people charged and arraigned in court starting in the days after the rape
Elvis Torrentes charged November 5th (per your link).
If he wasn't charged until then, that means he was "out on the streets."
“still on the streets?”
Yes.
Saturday night 10/24 – rape occurs.
Monday10/26 -Cody Ray Smith (15) arrested at Richmond High School. He’s the only one of the attackers that actually still goes to Richmond High School. People talk and more suspects are arrested
Thursday 10/29 You have 4 people being arraigned
Cody Ray Smith and two other defendants, Marcelles James Peter, 17, of Pinole and Ari Abdallah Morales, 16, of San Pablo, are juveniles being charged as adults.
The fourth suspect, 19-year-old Manuel Ortega of Richmond, is charged with rape in concert, robbery and assault causing great bodily injury. He is being held on $1.2 million bail.
You also have another suspect caught
Richmond police arrested a sixth suspect, Jose Carlos Montano, 18,
This is the arraignment where they were wearing bullet proof vests.
Thursday 11/5 21-year-old Elvis Torrente finally caught.
So you have a period of about 7 days, from 10/26 to 11/5 before the ringleader and what police were calling the most vicious attacker (Everyone else got 1.2 million bail, I don’t believe they gave this creep any bail) was very much lose and out on the streets.
Was he under police surveillance? I hope so.
I hope it was a matter that they scared these kids so bad that they spent a week talking and fingering each other and Elvis Torrente before they arrested him.
Thankfully the guy was stupid enough to stay in town and didn’t make a run for the border.
typo - Meant to say
"So you have a period of about 7 days, from 10/29 to 11/5 ..."
Seriously, that was Thursday from one week till Thursday of the next before they arrested the 21-year-old Steroid Night Stalker.
And you know that every single person there knew who this guy was.
Mr. 20th and Florida would like you to know he supports gang rape:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/throgers/3982795018/
um, do you live in richmond? judging from your overly simplistic view of the situation, i would say no.
i think you're missing something very crucial here which is that there is a culture of violence in certain cities that results in the equation of "fear of getting caught" with "fear of getting killed."
i used to live in the Tenderloin, and there were THREE ocassions when I felt someone's life was in danger. All three times I called the police. It's not that complicated. If you're afraid of getting caught don't give the police your name, and don't make it obvious that you're calling the police. it's not "overly simplistic," it's common sense.
no offense, but the tenderloin is not the same. the tenderloin doesn't have rampant gang violence.
i just want to clarify: i'm not defending the fact that this guy (and others for that matter) watched and didn't call the cops. i am with you in that i think they should have called the cops. however, i think gang violence is a very real and very dangerous threat.
if you need an alternate example: the mob. do people snitch on the mob? no. b/c even if they did it "anonymously" the mob hit men can still find the person who snitched and send them on cement vacation.
well at least the TL has them beat on feces/urine-related street cred.
Ok, my post before was pretty convoluted. My point was that we-- you, me, people who are engaged in issues like sustainability, social justice, etc-- have generally accepted that the poor urban communities regard the police as an army of occupation. A lot of that alienation can be blamed on policies like the war on drugs, but it doesn't look like that's going to end anytime soon, and a possible solution might be to encourage bright young people to become police officers instead of community organizers, organic farmers, and so forth.
As to the real issue, I teach a lot of young guys like Salvador Rodriguez-- same age, background, prospects-- and I'm constantly frustrated by their reluctance to step up when people around them need help. However, they don't step up even to help themselves, and when they try they're suprisingly bad at it. His statements are very familiar to me: this is how lifetime C students respond when they're in over their heads. They start with a dumb lie in the hope that you won't care enough to follow up, and when they're caught they suddenly become too honest.
The contradictions that bother a lot of you in Rodriguez's account sound truthful to me. He lamely tried to stop what was going on without risking his friendship with the rapists. He left when he was told to go away mainly because he was scared of being labelled an accomplice, but he was bothered enough by the situation to linger in the area until it was all over to see if he could do anything to help the victim. If that's right, he's pathetic more than he is monstrous, although his inaction abetted a monstrous situation. But that can be said of most of us.
Jline,
One the one hand I have to commend you for at least having some empathy for this Salvador Rodriguez fuck-up. That’s an emotion that seems to be sorely lacking in this story. Have some fucking compassion for people weaker than you. The fact that this kid is now saying he was there when it started, watched it unfold, and just hung around for TWO AND A HALF HOURS while it grew a crowd of gwakers is really disturbing. He’s not the only one. There were reports of other bystanders walking around going “If you want to get fucked just go back there.”
But blaming the problem on energy production, community, and agriculture seems about as valid as blaming the problem on architecture, interest rates, and global warming.
How about taking responsibility for your own actions?
My girlfriend is a single mom who raised 2 kids under the poverty line in a neighborhood not immune to gangs, drugs, and violence. They, and every single kid we ever fed and let sleep-over turned out to be a good kid because they knew we would hold them accountable for their actions. I don’t believe for a second this “I grew up in a bad part of town so that’s my excuse to be a failure as a human being.” That’s a total, 100%, cop-out.
I blame every single bystander there and I hold him or her accountable for their actions.
And I also blame their parents.
Anyone else notice that we’re not seeing that many comments from the fathers of the rapists?
Marcelles Peter’s Mom and Aunt defended him in the sfgate story where thy were crying racism (You know, because he’s black and The System is out to get him). His brother was on the news defending him as well. Where’s his dad?
Cody Smith’s Mom was on the news blaming the school. Where is his dad?
That’s part of the problem. You have kids that are reproducing like stray dogs in heat, making babies at a younger and younger age (that you and I are subsidizing through our tax dollars and the Section 8 program), that are running the streets like feral two-legged animals. Entire generations of kids that should have been abortions that are now feral and going to school with your kids.
I blame the kids and I blame the parents that chose to have these kids and raise them this way.
I'm very much in agreement with you. We need to hold people accountable for their actions and inactions as part of getting everyone else to think about how we ought to respond in situations like these.
Not to veer away from a serious topic, but:
Huh?I donno about this kid - I just don't know. I'm totally consumed with this story, because I want to read about Justice, I want to know we don't let people get away with this here. Justice!
Yes, the system does let people get away with this here. Whether it happens in this case remains to be seen, but I think probably not.
I actually think the victim.. this girl has half a chance. I would be very surprised if she didn't get the last word. A lot of people are on her side from the getgo, plus she was treated so immediately after... there seems to be the potential of a lot of hard evidence and plus it's has global attention = pressure for harshjail-time. She's very lucky. Girl you are a Champion in my book. You are superwoman! Go tell it on the mountain. :) May you be an icon of hope - the one that sends a message to Richmond gangs that they aren't above the law - that these kids messed with the wrong girl and THEY were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Rapists get life! Get those suckers and do not give up. If I had been there I definatly would have done something. I'm not afraid of the intimidation of groups like this. I don't care what block you grew up on or where you're from... fear is a choice... just like doing the right thing is.
Beautiful words :)
You should write that down on a card and send it to her.
If anyone else wants to do so (C’mon we all hang out on the sfist message board. Writing a card shouldn’t be that difficult) you can send it to her at –
sexual assault victim
1250 23rd St.
Richmond, CA 94804-1011
Apparently she has been getting cards, teddy-bears, and other terms of endearment from all over the world, including several really uplifting letters from other rape survivors.
For as horrible as this crime was, I thank God for the amount of attention it has received and as a result the support network it has created.
I actually did... I highly recommend it as well. Send a check if you can't find the words - send words if you can't write a check.. or both. Be somebody! Do Something. I sent mine to the police station c/o Sgt Curran. I've never gotton so involved in a news story.