Shot by police on Second St. in May, Ernest Rodriguez’s case goes quietly through court

The case against Ernest Raymond Rodriguez, Jr. of Anaheim silently returns to Long Beach Superior Court Monday morning for a preliminary hearing, a Second St. vandalism call that became an officer-involved shooting with a critically-wounded suspect—who, despite the apparent seriousness of the charges against him, was out on bail within six weeks.

Arriving three days after Memorial Day—as Belmont Shore residents uneasy with their neighborhood’s popularity as a nightspot faced another totally bitchen summer—Rodriguez’s shooting seemed to be evidence of their distress. It came during a huge debate over police protection in Belmont Shore—residents upset over the lack thereof and city officials crying poor—and less than three weeks before a man sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl near Second St. and Livingston Dr. on June 15. Tensions ran high.

But, perhaps surprisingly, when Rodriguez quietly took a seat in the back row of Department J—for a preliminary-hearing conference in late October—no one seemed to know or care who he was. The furor had abated. (Also surprising is how hard it is to get information on what should be a simple felony case.)

Rodriguez, 25, was shot and critically wounded by a Long Beach police officer shortly after midnight, after he allegedly broke a window in Sweet Jill’s bakery in Belmont Shore, resisted arrest and took away a police officer’s baton.

On May 29, prosecutors charged him with one felony—resisting arrest—with an enhancement that made it a serious felony, thanks probably to the alleged baton-taking. For breaking the window, which was valued at less than $400, they added a misdemeanor charge, and it sounded like they wanted him at least semi-bad. Or not.

The Press-Telegram’s John Canalis wrote July 9 that Rodriguez had been charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor—but he also quoted LBPD Sgt. Erik Herzog as saying that “as a result of his injuries, [Rodriguez] has some difficulty walking. And further to that, he’s had some surgeries to help him out.”

Paraphrasing Herzog, Canalis wrote that “bail was not required, in part, because Rodriguez had no criminal record and the family showed a willingness to cooperate.” That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? But here’s where the cone of silence starts to descend.

“The police officer contends that my client grabbed the baton. That is not what happened. He’s normal. He’s not out of control,” Rodriguez’s attorney Mark Fredrick said outside Department J Oct. 26—presenting, briefly, an account that directly contradicts the Long Beach Police Department’s official version of events leading up to Rodriguez’s shooting. “It just seems to me something went very wrong. At the bare minimum, police overreacted to the situation.”

There’s also this: “There’s certainly a lot more bullet holes than there are empty shell casings found at the scene. I’m not sure what to make of it. Some of them could be through-and-through [wounds],” Fredrick said—meaning that a single bullet could have wounded Rodriguez more than once. “I’m not jumping to conclusions,” Fredrick added.

Neither are Long Beach police—nor the city of Long Beach. Despite speaking somewhat freely on the fifth floor of Long Beach Superior Court, Fredrick did not respond to several messages requesting additional comment left at his office.

Similarly, representatives of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office declined to discuss the case beyond confirming the contents of the State’s felony complaint against Rodriguez.

Long Beach police officer Jackie Bezart—the department’s public-information officer to whom I talked about the case—declined to provide a copy of Rodriguez’s police report in the incident because—wait for it—it’s currently in court. I also asked the Long Beach police employee who handles records requests for a copy of the police report—at Bezart’s suggestion—and that employee told me the police department’s investigation was still “pending.”

So, which is it?

Bezart also declined to discuss whether Rodriguez’s shooting prompted police to increase patrols on Second St.—or even to say how many officer-involved shootings the Long Beach Police Department has had from Nov. 1, 2008, to Oct. 31, 2009—but she suggested I ask City Attorney Robert Shannon about getting a police report. Shannon said that if I made a California Public Records Act request to his office, he’d try to get me a report. The operative word, sadly, was “try.”

“Mr. Douglas, [in] response to your request, I learned from the police dept [sic] that the investigation in this matter is ongoing and therefore the documents you referenced are not now subject to disclosure,” Shannon e-mailed Friday.

At least he wrote back—and called me back—and at least he’d say whether Second St. police patrols had increased after Rodriguez’s shooting (they’d actually been stepped up before it); and how many officer-involved shootings there have been in the last 12 months (the answer is 11).

“All I can say is, the nature of the investigation is continuing. The criminal investigation is at a very, very preliminary stage,” Shannon said. “In fact, there hasn’t even been a preliminary hearing.”

So . . . why is the investigation still ongoing after five months? Is excessive force on the part of the Long Beach Police Department a concern? Shannon said no. Twice.

“This is a unique situation,” he said at one point—immediately correcting himself. “I wouldn’t say unique,” he continued, noting that criminal investigations can take years. But why? Why this one—a call that went out as vandalism and came back as an officer-involved shooting?

“It’ll all wash out eventually, and it’ll be a matter of public record,” said Shannon, who’d characterized withholding the police report as “not a shotgun denial.” “You want your information today, and we say you can’t have it today.”

Tags: belmont shore, ernest rodriguez, lbpd, police, second street, shooting