S au ger ties robbery suspect charged in domestic dispute
The repeat felon was arrested twice Sunday within a span of just over four hours, according to authorities.
ULSTER PARK, N.Y. » A repeat felon accused of robbing a convenience store in Saugerties late Sunday was charged a few hours earlier in connection with a domestic dispute in the town of Esopus, according to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.
Alberto Rodriguez Jr., 53, of West Bridge Street in Saugerties, was charged about 6 p.m. Sunday with one misdemeanor count of obstructing governmental administration.
During an investigation of a reported domestic dispute in the Esopus hamlet of Ulster Park, Rodriguez “became combative with law-enforcement officers at the scene in an attempt to obstruct the investigation,” a press release from the Sheriff’s Office stated.
Rodriguez was released after being charged and is to appear at a later date in Esopus Town Court.
About 10:30 p.m. Sunday, the Saugerties Police Department was notified the Speedy Mart store at 317 Main St. in the village had been robbed by a man who was visibly intoxicated and threatened a clerk with a handgun when the clerk refused to sell him beer.
Police said the man, later identified as Rodriguez, ran from the store with two cans of beer and was arrested a short time later by an officer who was nearby. Rodriguez had a holstered replica of a 9mm pistol in his possession when arrested, police said.
Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said Tuesday that the Speedy Mart robbery happened “right after they (sheriff’s deputies) dropped him off here in the village of Saugerties” in the wake of the Ulster Park arrest.
Rodriguez — who was convicted six times in drug, weapon and robbery cases between 1986 and 2013 and served time in state prison — was charged with the felony of armed robbery and the misdemeanors of menacing and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the Saugerties holdup, police said.
He was sent to Ulster County Jail without bail as a predicate felon, meaning he has had at least one felony conviction in the past 10 years.