Hearing set for Franklin judge accused of making sexual innuendo from the bench

The state Advisory Council on Judicial Conduct scheduled a hearing for a Franklin municipal judge accused of making a sexual innuendo at a defendant during a bail hearing.

On Dec. 5, 2017, Judge Hector Rodriguez presided over a bail hearing at which the defendant was released on her own recognizance.

According to the ACJC’s filing and Rodriguez’s response, the defendant did not immediately understand whether she had to pay bail after being told by the court she was being released on her own recognizance.

She asked the judge whether she owed him anything.

“Not that you can do in front of all these people, no,” Rodriguez said.

The judge denied that he was making a sexual innuendo, insisting that he was referring to monetary payment.

“You can’t take it out of context. You take a statement and flip it around, throw it in the air, put spice on it and put it back into that — it’s going to be the same when you — in the context of what I said. It was all about the monetary bail. And I — and she seemed confused,” he told the ACJC. “I said, well, you seem — I didn’t say confused. And she goes do I owe you anything and I was like not that you would give me in front of all these people referring to money, a monetary bail.”

Rodriguez’s hearing is set for Jan. 22.

He is charged with breaking three rules of the judicial code of conduct.