Former ballet dancer faces another sex assault charge after acquittal
A former dancer and once rising star of Ballet San Antonio remains in jail accused of sexual assault after he was found not guilty recently of a different sexual assault charge.
In both cases, Hugo Ihosvany Rodriguez, 27, was accused by female dancers in the ballet company.
A Bexar County jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about two hours Nov. 2 before acquitting Rodriguez of sexual assault.
Defense attorneys James Vincent Tocci and Kelly McGinnis had argued that the accuser regretted having consensual sex after the two slept in her bed on March 12, 2017.
Prosecutors Anna Scott and Clint Malloy had told the jury that Rodriguez entered the woman’s bedroom while she slept and forced himself on her without consent.
(The Express-News does not identify complainants in sexual assault cases.)
Rodriguez was indicted Sept. 20, 2017, on the second sexual assault charge. The female dancer went to police with the allegation in July 2017 and said the assault had occurred in December 2016.
Rodriguez is in the Bexar County jail, with bail set at $30,000, records show. On Friday, Tocci said Rodriguez has been unable to afford bail be-
cause he does not have family members here to support him.
He said his client is innocent of the second charge, and he looked forward to a jury trial.
“The complainant’s allegations came out only after the other complainant made her allegations,” he said, adding that Rodriguez and the woman were having a sexual relationship. “The complainant will verify that.”
Tocci said he believes prosecutors already tried the strongest of the two cases.
But he added, “We are prepared to go to trial.”
Tocci said the case is uncertain because the second accuser no longer lives in the United States.
District Attorney Nico LaHood’s office issued a statement Sunday that said prosecutors are considering whether or not the office will pursue the other charge.
At the recent trial, witnesses testified that Rodriguez and others, including the female dancer, had been socializing earlier in the night. She went home with her roommate.
Rodriguez began texting the woman that he wanted to go over to her apartment, but the texts were never answered because she had gone to sleep.
About 4 a.m., Rodriguez called the roommate to let him into the apartment. Because he had stayed there before on the couch, the roommate let him in, she testified.
Once the roommate went back to sleep in her room, Rodriguez went into the dancer’s room, crawled into the bed and began having what he believed was consensual sex, he told police in an interview after the incident.
The accuser testified at the trial that she was awakened with Rodriguez having sex with her and that she never invited him over or gave consent.
If convicted in the new case, Rodriguez faces two to 20 years in prison.