Two men accused of having committed felonies in the Santa Clarita Valley returned to court this week — both being ordered to return at a future date for further proceedings.
Scott Rodriguez
A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy charged on suspicion of possessing child pornography returned to court Monday.
Scott T. Rodriguez, of Agua Dulce, was an employee of the LASD until he was dismissed from county service after he was charged with one count of possession of child pornography on Jan. 22 of this year.
Rodriguez was previously released on his own recognizance, and is scheduled to once again return to court Sept. 29 for a pretrial hearing. During a pretrial hearing, A pretrial hearing involves the judge, prosecution and defense convening in order to present evidence, documents and/or any other relevant materials/matters before the trial begins.
The charges against Rodriguez stem from an alleged download that occurred on or around July 18, 2019, and consisted of five images: one image of an approximately 7-year-old girl nude and being penetrated by a foreign object; and four others were of nude 10-year-old girls in sexual positions or committing sexual acts, Roger Ballesteros of the LASD Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau said.
Other devices were reportedly retrieved from Rodriguez’s home on the 22000 block of Vasquez Canyon Road that contained a dozen more pornographic images. However, detectives could not confirm the ages of the females pictured.
Deputy District Attorney Teresa De Castro of the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office Cyber Crimes Division is scheduled to be the prosecutor for the case. Rodriguez is represented by Michael Williamson, a retired LAPD sergeant who specializes in officer-involved shootings and/or other matters involving law enforcement internal investigation cases.
David Figueroa
A Pacoima man accused of stabbing his friend to death in Canyon Country close to three years ago returned to court Monday.
David Figueroa returned to court after having been charged on suspicion of stabbing Brent Hariston, of Canyon Country, to death on July 30, 2018, following an argument between the two.
Investigators have expressed their belief that Figueroa and Hariston met that morning, and Figueroa stabbed Hariston — the two had previously met in rehab and reportedly worked together at the time of the murder — with the suspect then fleeing the scene.
Hariston was rushed to the hospital, where he later died due to the multiple stab wounds to the upper part of his body, and Figueroa was ultimately arrested.
Figueroa is set to return to court on Aug. 13 for a pretrial conference. Pretrial conferences are used for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: establishing a timeline for concluding all pretrial activities — and a tentative trial date may be set at this time — encouraging the settlement of cases, counsel trying to agree on undisputed facts or points of law and more.
