By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A Del Rio man has been arrested and charged with making a threat against County Attorney David Martinez in an alleged effort to influence a decision in another criminal case.
The man, Arturo Rodriguez, 57, of Del Rio, has also been charged with two counts of harassment after he allegedly made repeated phone calls and left numerous voicemail messages on the phones of two Texas Department of Safety employees.
Rodriguez was arrested July 30 after Texas Ranger Brenden Helton obtained arrest warrants in the three cases.
Rodriguez was charged with the offense of terroristic threat, a Class A misdemeanor, and with two counts of harassment, both Class B misdemeanors.
In his complaint on the terroristic threat case, which is on file in the county clerk’s office, Helton wrote, “On July 1, 2024, (I) conducted an interview with Val Verde County Attorney David Martinez. Martinez stated he received a threatening email from Arturo Rodriguez via (Rodriguez’s) personal email account.
“This email references an incident that occurred on Jan. 22, 2022, in which Rodriguez claims to be the victim of an assault. After the Val Verde County Attorney’s Office reviewed this case and declined to prosecute, Rodriguez became angry,” Helton wrote.
He wrote that Rodriguez’s email contained a deadline of Jan. 23, 2024, “for the Val Verde County Attorney’s Office to proceed with the prosecution of this case or else Rodriguez might resort to ‘self justice.’”
Helton also wrote that on June 12, 2024, a communications supervisor with the Del Rio Police Department provided him with an audio recording of a telephone call the DRPD had received from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) National Threat Operations Center.
“They relayed information from a telephone call the FBI had with Rodriguez. During their conversation, Rodriguez expressed his frustration with law enforcement, and he would be ‘seeking legal counsel with a gun’,” Helton wrote.
“This has led Martinez to believe Rodriguez has threatened violence to influence the conduct of his office. . . Arturo Rodriguez intentionally, knowingly and recklessly threatened to commit an offense involving violence to David Martinez, namely enacting ‘self justice,’ if a case was not prosecuted, with intent to influence the conduct or activities of a county attorney of a political subdivision of the state, namely the Val Verde County Attorney’s Office,” Helton finished.
In the two harassment cases, Helton wrote he learned that “multiple offices and employees of the Texas Department of Public Safety have been receiving repeated telephone calls and voicemail messages from Arturo Rodriguez.”
In the first harassment case, Helton wrote he interviewed an executive assistant for the DPS Criminal Investigations Division in Austin who received 12 telephone calls from Rodriguez between June 11 and June 26. Helton also wrote Rodriguez allegedly left “multiple voicemail messages” on the assistant’s phone.
Helton wrote, “Upon reviewing the voicemail messages, Rodriguez made multiple statements likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment or embarrass (the assistant).”
In the second harassment case, Helton wrote he took a statement from an administrative assistant of the DPS Texas Ranger Division in Weslaco.
Helton wrote, “(The assistant) spoke with Rodriguez on a telephone call on June 4, 2024. (Rodriguez) was upset regarding a warrant issued for his arrest. The telephone call ended when Rodriguez became belligerent with (the assistant).”
Helton wrote that between June 4 and June 19, “Rodriguez continued to call (the assistant) numerous times. . . Between June 4 and June 19, Rodriguez called (the assistant) 16 times, 10 of which he left voicemail messages.”
Helton wrote, “Upon reviewing the voicemail messages, Rodriguez made multiple statements likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment or embarrass (the assistant).”
Following his arrest, Rodriguez was magistrated on the charges by Justice of the Peace Pct. 1 Jesse James Treviño. Treviño advised Rodriguez of his rights and set bail totaling $8,000 in the three cases. Rodriguez made bail and has been released from custody.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
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