A former Orange County sheriff’s deputy arrested in 2022 on suspicion of sexually assaulting two female inmates will face no jail time after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor charges Wednesday.
Arcadio Rodriguez is required to register as a sex offender for at least 10 years and is under a one-year formal probation, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. The Stanton resident was sentenced to 364 days of time already served under home confinement.
“Inmates are completely dependent on sheriff’s deputies and other jail staff for everything from food and medication to clothing,” Dist. Atty. Todd Spizer said in a statement. “These women were awaiting trial and had no way of escaping a predator who literally held the keys to their captivity and ordered them to perform at his every whim.”
A representative for Rodriguez could not be reached.
Rodriguez was charged with one count of sexual battery, one count of a detention facility employee engaging in sexual activity with a confined consenting adult and one count of possession of a cellphone in a correctional facility.
All three were misdemeanors.
Spitzer noted that California law only allows prosecutors to charge a misdemeanor because the assault was over the clothes and not skin-to-skin.
Spitzer said he was “aggressively seeking a change” in state law for harsher penalties.
Rodriguez is accused of touching two female inmates over their clothes and showing them pornographic videos while he worked and they were incarcerated at Theo Lacy maximum security jail complex in Orange.
Authorities believe the assaults began in May 2022.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said it became aware of potential wrongdoing on Aug. 8, 2022, when it intercepted a communication that laid out the misconduct.
Rodriguez was placed on administrative leave Aug. 9 and arrested Aug. 12 and booked into Santa Ana Jail that day.
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