QUEENS — A grand jury issued an indictment against a Brooklyn man and his son on perjury and other charges for allegedly scheming to frame another man on armed robbery and sexual assault charges, the district attorney said.
The indictment accused Hipolito Rodriguez, 38, and his son Jordan Rodriguez, 19, of drumming up fake charges to incriminate an innocent man. District Attorney Richard Brown said the duo paid a woman Jordan Rodriguez had dated to accuse a man of robbing her at gunpoint and sexually abusing her.
The two were also accused of driving the woman to the area of Cypress and Green avenues in Brooklyn and instructing her to call the cops from a pay phone to provide a positive description of the innocent man.
The elder Rodriguez was arraigned Tuesday in Queens Supreme Court on a seven-count indictment charging him and his son with perjury, bribing a witness, tampering with a witness, intimidating a victim or witness, unlawful imprisonment, falsely reporting an incident and conspiracy. Their actions resulted in an innocent man spending eight months behind bars in lieu of $75,000 bail, Brown said.
The younger Rodriguez was still being sought, Brown said.
“This is not a case of the wrong man being accused of a crime, but a case of no crime ever being committed except for those the defendants are accused of committing,” Brown said, “which resulted in an innocent man being incarcerated for nearly eight months as he awaited trial and the frightening prospect of spending a lengthy time behind bars if convicted of the trumped-up charges.”
