CONNECTICUT
The Ridgefield Press
By Jenny Blum
The music minister of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church has been dismissed, after he was arrested on charges of child endangerment and statutory rape.
Omar Rodriguez, 28, had been the music minister and chorus director of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church since September 2004, St. Andrew’s Pastor Carla Meier said.
On Friday, April 7, he was arrested on six counts of endangering the welfare of a child in the Town of Mamaroneck, N.Y., where he was a music teacher at the Hommocks Middle School.
After learning of those charges, a 16-year old girl came forward with her parents last weekend to report that Mr. Rodriguez had had sex with her in his Mamaroneck apartment in December 2005 and February 2006, Mamaroneck police said. Mr. Rodriguez was re-arrested on Monday, April 10, on two charges of statutory rape.
An area newspaper reported that the 16-year-old girl was from Ridgefield, but Mamaroneck police said they would not confirm her hometown in order to protect her privacy. Channel 12 News in Norwalk said she lives in Weston.
Lt. James Gaffney of the Village of Mamaroneck Police Department said yesterday, April 12, that the case is under investigation and there may be more charges.