Court-ordered GPS bracelet leads cops to rape suspect
A convicted sex predator who was wearing a court-ordered GPS bracelet raped a woman, then cut off the bracelet and fled before cops found him yesterday, police said.
A woman told police she was walking home in the South End about 1 a.m. Monday when the suspect, Eduardo Rodriguez, 31, stopped her saying he had a knife, police said.
“She was approached by a Hispanic male on a bicycle who threatened her with the possibility of a knife,” police Commissioner William B. Evans said. “At that point he forced her into Carter Playground, where she was sexually assaulted … After an exhaustive investigation around the clock with our sexual assault special investigation unit, we want to announce an arrest.”
Evans said investigators were helped by the GPS bracelet which Rodriguez was forced to wear after his release from prison in December.
Rodriguez’s bracelet was traced to the playground at the time the woman said the sexual assault took place, police said, but sometime after he cut off the bracelet, forcing cops to hunt for him. Evans said dozens of cops spent hours visiting 15 homes looking for the suspect, before finding Rodriguez near the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue.
“Between the GPS bracelet that was in the area at the time as well as the brave victim coming forward and identifying him after the crime, that’s how we know we have who’s responsible,” Evans said. “I’m happy we got him.”
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office said Rodriguez will be arraigned today in Roxbury District Court on charges of aggravated rape, indecent assault and battery, armed robbery, intimidation of a witness and aggravated kidnapping. Rodriguez was previously sentenced to a term of eight to 10 years in state prison followed by five years of probation after his 2008 conviction at trial for an earlier sexual assault, Conley’s office said.