By Doug Miller
José Rodriguez, formerly of Island Park, was convicted of committing a knife-point rape in Manhattan in 1992 and served 10 years in prison. Because his crime occurred before Megan's Law went into effect in 1997, he sued for a chance to challenge in court his Level 3 sex-offender status. This month, he lost his hearing, according to a Long Beach police spokesman, and the mechanism began for community notification.
"Rodriguez got his hearing a few months ago," said Detective Lt. Vincent Buscemi, head of the Long Beach Police Department's Detective Division. "The state notified us in May that his Level 3 status has been sustained,"
Rodriguez, who now lives on West Broadway, was arrested twice in a week last summer in Long Beach and charged with child endangerment, stemming from incidents in which he allegedly tried to kidnap a 12-year-old girl as she walked home from her school bus stop, then later propositioned a 14-year-old girl as she walked home from a store. He was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison, and was recently released after serving eight months.
That conviction did not rise to the level of Level 3 status, so his more serious conviction occurred before the advent of Megan's Law.
Due to the sensitive nature of these notifications, the Long Beach police do not include newspapers as part of their notification process. They are required by law to notify only "vulnerable populations."
"He attacked a woman, so 55 percent of the population is vulnerable," Buscemi said, "So we've sent detectives to churches, libraries, schools and homes in the area. We just can't do every home in Long Beach ... But the courts have frowned on using the media to notify vulnerable populations ... we have to protect his rights, too."
The Herald was not contacted by the Long Beach police, but by a Long Beach Catholic Regional School parent, who faxed over the letter he received from Principal Veronica Danca. Danca did not return calls for comment.
Coincidentally, Rodriguez has moved into the same West Broadway building as the city's other Level 3 offender, Andrew Millar.
This was the first Megan's Law notification of the year, a process Long Beach Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Greenberg called critical.
"As superintendent, my interest is entirely in protecting our children," he said.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
