Williamette Week reports. (excerpt below, worth reading in full)
An appeal last week to the state Supreme Court may be the final chance for justice for a former Boys and Girls Club staffer, found guilty of sexual assault in a case one ex-cop calls the worst travesty of justice he's seen in 20 years as an investigator.
If the court refuses to take up the case or rules against 27-year-old Veronica Rodriguez, she'll go to prison for five more years, after already serving one year for a crime she denies committing.
A Washington County jury found Rodriguez guilty in 2005 of first-degree sexual assault after police accused her of running her hands through a 13-year-old boy's hair and pulling the back of his head against her covered chest in the middle of a crowded game room at the Boys and Girls Club in Hillsboro.
Under Measure 11, a 1994 voter-approved ballot initiative setting mandatory minimum sentences, Rodriguez faced six years and three months in prison. But Circuit Judge Nancy Campbell gave her 16 months instead, saying the Measure 11 sentence would violate the state constitution as cruel and unusual punishment.
Rodriguez served one year at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, earning time off for good behavior. Meanwhile, prosecutors appealed her sentence, and in December a three-judge panel at the state Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that Rodriguez should serve out the remaining five years of her Measure 11 sentence. Rodriguez's appeal of that ruling landed at the Supreme Court on Feb. 13.
Rodriguez's conviction destroyed her career as a social worker. A registered sex offender as a result, she's now living in Spokane with her parents and working as a barista.(Thanks to the Agitator)
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