Border County Sheriff’s Deputy Sent to Prison for On-Duty Sexual Assault of Texas Woman

A federal judge in Texas sentenced a sheriff’s deputy from Webb County, Texas (Laredo), to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman during a traffic stop.

This week, former deputy Ignacio Rodriguez IV went before U.S. District Judge Marina Marmolejo in the Southern District of Texas, who sentenced him to 20 years in prison for the charge of depriving a citizen of her legal rights. Rodriguez pleaded guilty on April 23 as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, who agreed to dismiss additional charges.

Court documents from the case revealed that on September 1, 2024, Rodriguez pulled a vehicle over that was moving on the wrong side of the road. During the stop, Rodriguez spoke with two women in the vehicle. The women admitted they had been drinking and were going home after a pool party.

Rodriguez told one of the women that she needed to convince him to let them go or he would be taking them to jail. The woman kept telling the deputy that she was in a relationship and not interested in men. The deputy then turned off his bodycam, took one of the women to his patrol car, where he intimidated her verbally while continuously using his hands to gesture to his handgun on his belt.

Court documents revealed that once in the patrol car, Rodriguez unzipped his pants, pulled out his penis, and forced her to perform oral sex on him in a rough fashion that made her throw up. Afterward, the deputy released the woman but used her cell phone to call himself to get her phone number.

After the woman got to their home, the victim’s family contacted local police and went to a hospital, where they conducted a post-sexual assault evaluation that confirmed her claims. Local police and Texas State Troopers found various video recordings from the area that also confirmed the victim’s claims.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected]. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].