Crime & Safety
After Molestation Case, Child Porn Charges Filed Against Former Redwood City Teacher's Aide
Gustabo Rodriguez pleaded no contest last year to child molestation.
REDWOOD CITY, CA – A Redwood City teacher's aide who pleaded no contest in October to two felony counts related to sex crimes with a 15-year-old student now faces two counts of possessing child pornography, San Mateo County prosecutors said.
Gustabo Rodriguez, 22, was scheduled for sentencing Thursday on the child molestation charges, but Rodriguez's attorney Steven Chase asked the judge to sentence Rodriguez at the conclusion of both cases.
Rodriguez, a former part-time aide at Sequoia High School, pleaded no contest to felony oral copulation of a minor under 16, according to prosecutors. Thursday, he pleaded not guilty to the two counts of possessing child pornography.
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A preliminary hearing in the child pornography case is set for Feb. 23. The molestation case has been continued to March 9. Rodriguez is being held on $100,000 bail.
Prosecutors said Rodriguez had oral sex with the boy four times and at one time made a video of himself shaving the boy's pubic hair without the boy's knowledge.
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The video was sent anonymously to a school vice principal, who gave it to Redwood City police in late July, according to prosecutors. Police had seized a hard drive and laptop of Rodriguez's in March and in November found the pornography, prosecutors said.
Chase said Rodriguez admitted to the sex acts with the boy and has been "apologetic for what he did."
"He is a bright young man," Chase said of Rodriguez. "There isn't a mean bone in Gustabo's body."
According to Chase, Rodriguez is a good person who committed bad acts, rather than a bad person. That's different than some people Chase's met whom he would describe as bad, he said.
In the child pornography case, Chase said the defense will be mounting "a vigorous defense."
"It's very, very suspicious" because the dates of the internet searches appear to be clustered around one or two days and people who look at pornography don't look at it for just a couple of days, according to Chase, who specializes in sex crime cases.
A plea bargain has Rodriguez facing two years in prison, but the judge is leaning toward probation, Chase said.
– By Bay City News Service / Image via Shutterstock
