Suspect arrested following alleged sexual assault in Washington City

Composite image with background photo by Oleksandr Filon/iStock/Getty Images Plus; overlay stock image of Washington City Police logo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A suspect is in jail following allegations of forcible sexual abuse that took place in Washington City in April involving a woman who was reportedly assaulted with her arms pinned behind her back.

2020 file photo for illustrative purposes only of Washington City Police officers near Interstate 15 offramp in Washington City, Utah, Sept. 15, 2020 | Photo courtesy of the Washington City Police Department, St. George News

Last Thursday, 52-year-old Roderico Armando Garcia-Rodriguez was arrested and booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility. He faces one second-degree felony count of forcible sexual abuse, a charge under review by the Washington County Attorney’s Office.

The arrest stems from an investigation into an alleged sexual assault reported on April 28, when officers in Washington City were dispatched to St. George Regional Hospital following a forensic exam conducted by emergency room staff.

According to charging documents filed with the court, officers arrived and spoke to the reporting party who said she had gone on a date with a man she identified only as “Roderico,” and when the date was over the suspect drove her home.

As the suspect helped her out of the vehicle, he started to kiss her and place “his hands everywhere on her,” the officer noted in the report. At some point, she lost her footing and fell to the ground.

As the suspect was helping her up, he pulled the woman’s jacket down over her arms, pinning them behind her back, the report states.

Police say the suspect then threw the woman in the backseat of his vehicle and held her down, pulled down her clothes and began to sexually abuse her. The reporting party also told police that throughout the incident, she continuously said “no” and asked the suspect to stop multiple times – declarations that went unheeded, according to the report.

At one point the suspect stopped and allowed the woman to get out of the car, but after exiting, she said, the suspect pinned her against the vehicle again and pulled the front of her clothing down as he reportedly continued to molest her.

Before he let her go, he allegedly grabbed the back of her neck and told her to repeat back to him that he was dominant and owned her. Shortly after, she was allowed to go back to her home.

The woman reportedly sent the man a number of text messages following the incident, and according to the message threads, the suspect never denied the allegations nor did he deny he heard her tell him “no.”

Stock image of Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, Utah, Oct. 21, 2020 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

Following the incident, the reporting party went to the hospital and police were contacted.

While speaking to detectives, the suspect admitted to going on the date with the woman and provided an account of what transpired after he pulled up to the residence but told police that everything that took place was consensual, the report states.

The suspect’s account of the incident was called into question when detectives reviewed the results of the forensic exam that revealed bruising to the woman’s arms, legs and neck – results that were consistent with the reporting party’s account.

Following the arrest on Thursday, the suspect remained in custody on $10,000 bail.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact. 

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!