Widow’s video has police accusing her of inciting violence
The Moore Police Department is one of several parties asking a federal judge to punish the widow of a man who died in a scuffle with police in front of the Warren Theatre for posting an angry video on Facebook.
In court documents, the parties, including the city of Moore, Moore Police Department and Moore Warren Theatre, accused Nair Rodriguez of trying to incite violence in a Facebook video where she refers to the police as “pigs” and pleads for justice for her late husband.
Nair Rodriguez denies she ever threatened violence against police or encouraged others to harm anyone.
“I don’t want pity, but I hope I see some kind of justice soon,” Nair Rodriguez told The Oklahoman. “They want to sanction me, but I have nothing.”
After being barred from attending the deposition of a Moore police officer she blames for the death of her husband, Nair Rodriguez was feeling particularly desperate and upset one morning right before Christmas, when she decided to vent her frustrations on Facebook, she said.
Using the videostreaming platform Facebook Live, Nair Rodriguez began broadcasting an angry rant against the police officers and the legal process while sitting in her
car parked in front of the law office in downtown Oklahoma City. Wearing bright red lipstick and aviator sunglasses, she is visibly distraught throughout the 18-minute video.
“I am desperate, I need help,” she said in the video, which she posted to the “Justice for Luis Rodriguez Not in Vain” Facebook page. “Please, I need help. Can somebody out there, out of this state of Oklahoma help me?”
Her husband, Luis Rodriguez, died after a scuffle with police in the parking lot of the Moore Warren Theater in 2014 on Valentine’s Day. She’s suing, saying police and theater security guards used excessive force against her husband, causing his death.
In a cellphone video Nair Rodriguez took the night her husband died, Luis Rodriguez can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” while police held him down.
In court documents, the city of Moore and other defendants are requesting Nair Rodriguez pay legal fees, as well as travel and lodging costs for a former Moore police officer who now lives out of state, as punishment for disruptive behavior. The defendants are asking to recover about $4,000 in total.
“She made comments about her ‘husband killers’ and ‘won’t somebody please help me’ — in this day and age this could mean a number of things,” said David Kirk, an attorney who represents the Moore Warren Theater and three offduty game wardens who were working as security guards at the theater the night of Luis Rodriguez’s death.
“A number of people involved in the lawsuit thought that was tremendously inappropriate and we felt the need to act. We don’t think it was very nice of her to threaten the lives and safety of our clients,” Kirk said.
Since her husband’s death, Nair Rodriguez, a stay-at-home mom for 13 years, has been unable to find a steady job, she said.
Nair Rodriguez now survives on food stamps and lives with relatives. She said she plans to sell her car in order to finance a return to her native Puerto Rico while waiting on the outcome of her lawsuit.
It was these circumstances that drove her to post the Facebook Live video, Nair Rodriguez said. The video shows the office building where the police officer’s deposition was scheduled to take place.
“As you hear, here on the 13th floor is where they are conducting the depo of Joseph Bradley, the killer, the one who asphyxiated Luis and he is still free of responsibility. This is the system,” Nair Rodriguez said in the video. “Please, if you can help me, I know it would not be in vain.”
Attorneys for the defendants say showing the location of the law office in the video was an attempt to encourage the public to harm police officers in the case.
“Ms. Rodriguez’s pleas for help and showing the building where the ‘killer’ is giving his deposition, is particularly alarming. This court is certainly aware that all across the nation, law enforcement officers are being targeted,” the defendants said a court filing. “Events in Baton Rouge, Dallas and elsewhere stand as real-life examples of how social media and inflammatory rhetoric can incite members of the public — even those that have no connection to this case or the Rodriguez family — to engage in conduct with tragic loss of life.”
Sgt. Jeremy Lewis, Moore police spokesman, said he couldn’t comment on Nair Rodriguez’s case because of the ongoing lawsuit, but said threats of violence are something the department takes seriously.
Moore police received many death threats immediately after the death of Luis Rodriguez because of the media attention involved in the case, Lewis said.
“We received numerous threatening phone calls,” he said.
Nair Rodriguez has started a fundraising campaign, accessible at www.gofundme.com/ justice-is-breathtaking. She said she will use the money not only for living expenses, but also to raise awareness about the victims of police brutality.
“I will keep fighting until the day I die,” she said. “I want to help other victims.”