She said he had “groomed” her, saying he “exploited my isolation, my loneliness, my hunger for basic humanity … You built a prison inside the prison, and I still live in that.”
She added: “I will no longer whisper the truth that you, your lawyer and CDCR tried to bury. This statement is for me so I can start to reclaim what you tried to take from me.”
In an interview this week before sentencing, Nikki said she would not stay quiet: “I’m doing this for the women who are still inside … who are too terrified to speak out, because that was once me, too.”
She said the CDCR was “run by bullies protecting themselves” and that while incarcerated, she faced harassment and intimidation after Rodriguez’s abuse came to light: “It was their way of silencing and normalizing the trauma they perpetuate … This was never about one bad apple. CDCR enabled Rodriguez, who got away with rape for years, and more abusers hide in plain sight. How many more women must be broken before we call this what it is: an injustice?”
On Thursday, before the sentence was announced, one incarcerated victim cried as she testified by Zoom from prison, condemning Rodriguez for failing to take responsibility or express remorse. Addressing his family, she said: “He didn’t think about his daughter when he raped me. He didn’t care about me being someone’s daughter … I will encourage women to speak up because there are too many men like you who are still out there.”
Another survivor’s statement, read by a victim’s advocate, said that after Rodriguez raped her, she asked the CDCR for STD and pregnancy tests, but officials told her she would have to admit engaging in “risky behavior” and could face discipline and a lengthened sentence. She criticized the department for not terminating supervisors and other officers who “allowed this to continue for so long” despite knowing about Rodriguez’s abuse. She said: “The system has failed.”
The CDCR previously said it had identified more than 22 potential victims of Rodriguez. A department spokesperson said on Thursday the sentence “reaffirms CDCR’s own internal investigation and referral” to prosecutors: “The department resolutely condemns any staff member – especially a peace officer who is entrusted to enforce the law – who violates their oath and shatters public trust.”
The spokesperson referred to a 2022 statement that said the CDCR enforces a “zero-tolerance policy for sexual violence”, that retaliation against people who report abuse “is not tolerated”, and that it was expanding its system of surveillance cameras to assist in “preventing or detecting misconduct by both staff and inmate alike”.
Last year, the US Department of Justice under the Biden administration opened a civil rights investigation into staff sexual abuse at CCWF and California’s other women’s prison, citing the Rodriguez case and hundreds of lawsuits. The justice department noted that officers accused of misconduct included “the very people responsible for handling complaints of sexual abuse”.
Under Trump, the justice department has dismissed police civil rights abuse cases brought by the previous administration, but advocates said the inquiry into California prison misconduct is ongoing. A justice department spokesperson declined to comment, and the CDCR spokesperson referred to a statement from last year saying the department “embraces transparency” and welcomed the investigation.
