Forensic interviewer, investigators testify at preliminary hearing in State v. Alexander Rodriguez

Judge Stephanie Boyd of the 187th District Court heard testimony in the State of Texas’ case against Alexander Rodriguez involving a juvenile outcry of sexual abuse dating to when the victim was a child.

At a hearing on the matter, a forensic interviewer from ChildSafe described a recorded forensic interview in which the child recounted three separate incidents she said involved the defendant, beginning at about age 6 and continuing to about age 10. The child described waking to being touched, being forced to perform sexual acts and, in one incident described as “most memorable,” being unwrapped from a blanket and then penetrated, according to the interviewer’s testimony.

The testimony matters because the forensic interview and investigative reports were the basis for the charge the state filed with the district attorney’s office. The interview included sensory and contextual details that the forensic interviewer said are important to assessing credibility in delayed-outcry cases; investigators described that the…