'If I cry rape, I'll get out of getting in trouble': DA defends Rodriguez prosecution
During a press event Tuesday, Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said Veronika Rodriguez lied about being the victim of sexual assault, and misrepresented a recording of a date and sexual encounter with Fahad Pervez in 2023.
Veronika Rodriguez was found guilty on May 23 of intercept communications, disclose intercepted communications, and giving false information to a law enforcement officer.
True sexual assault victims will be under more scrutiny and less likely to be believed because of people like Rodiguez, according to Graf.
"Whatever her true motivation was, whether it was simply to get out of a reprimand for fraternization or whether it would get her more attention ... what she has done here has undermined the work of true sexual assault trauma survivors," she said. "It is disgusting."
Graf called on Rodiguez to apologize to both Pervez and "every true legitimate trauma survivor" for her actions both during the January 2023 event and afterwards.
"Veronika Rodriguez needs to realize there is a consequence for what she did, and that there is going to be a consequence for ruining a good man's life and his reputation," Graf said Tuesday.
On Jan. 11, 2023, Rodriguez went to Fort Indiantown Gap Police Department to report an sexual assault she alleged happened on Jan. 8, 2023 involving Pervez. Rodriguez told police that she and Pervez had non-consensual sex while in his vehicle in the parking lot of the Keystone Conference Center, and that she recorded parts of the incident on her phone.
Pervez was never formally charged in the alleged incident.
According to Pennsylvania's wiretap act, it is illegal to record private conversations, which can include conversations in public places, without the consent of all parties to the conversation. An exception to the act is when someone is under a reasonable suspicion that they are recording a crime of violence, which does include rape.
Rodriguez has a pattern of recording partners she was with, according to Graf. According to Rodriguez's phone data, she would meet people she was in relationships with and start stalking them on social media.
"She had a history, and we saw it on her phone, where she would document and record interactions with these men and they wouldn't know it," Graf said.
Law enforcement officials found evidence of Rodriguez using friends' phones to take pictures of Snapchat conversations, driving by a paramour's house to "copy his wife's license plate," and taking videos of herself passing the property and sending them to friends.
"As soon as those men would dump her, or end things, or refuse to speak to her anymore, she would send that evidence to their significant others," Graf said.
Graf said before meeting with Pervez, Rodriguez used her phone to search the former military doctor's social media history. Graf said law enforcement found evidence that Rodriguez knew Pervez was married, though at the time of the incident separated, before they went out that evening.
"So (Rodriguez) started making this recording, like she did with every other man that she deals with, and now she has it," Graf said Tuesday. "The difference is in this case, she has to talk to her (military) supervisor and this now becomes, 'If I cry rape, I'll get out of getting in trouble.'"
Pervez met with Rodriguez on Jan. 7 at a Middletown dental clinic where she worked. After some general conversations, he left her a note about potential books and his number and that he was a doctor from New York City. Later they arranged to meet up Jan. 8, which ended up at Frog Hollow Tavern in Jonestown.
Pervez then drove Rodriguez back to Snitz Creek Brewery in Annville, where she left her car at the beginning of the night. Both Pervez and Rodriguez testified during trial that they went to Funck's Mini Market Gas station to treat a nose bleed.
Graf Tuesday showed the video of Rodriguez walking through the gas station, highlighting the fact the Rodriguez walked past two clerks with her cell phone on the way to the bathroom.
"So if her version of events are really true, why don't you speak to those two people that could help you?" Graf said to the media Tuesday. "Why don't you use your phone and call 911?"
Prosecutors played the 55-minute audio recording made by Rodriguez of the alleged sexual assault on Jan. 11, 2023 at the Keystone Conference Center for the jury last week. Graf did not play the recording for the media Tuesday, but said her office spent four weeks going through Rodriguez's phone data.
"(Rodriguez) takes that hour long recording, and on her own she self edits it to make well over 10 clips that she labels and names, in her own words, to paint this out as a rape," Graf said. "She does this."
Prosecutors at trial and Graf Tuesday said that Rodriguez attempted to delete the entire recording from her phone, and played select clips for law enforcement while they were conducting their investigation.
"So as (Rodriguez's) portraying this incident to law enforcement, she blatantly lies," Graf said. "She manipulates the true evidence that was there, that full hour-long recording, and she never admits that (recording) exists."
Graf read text messages shared between Rodriguez and Pervez on Jan 8 and Jan. 9, which included discussions about another meeting and Rodriguez texting "I'd prefer zero cops next time." She also read text messages between Rodriguez and one of her friends, identified as "Bad Bitch," talking about the experience in a positive way.
On Jan. 10, 2023, Rodriguez's superiors at Fort Indiantown Gap contacted her about a police blotter item, which showed police met with Rodriguez, an airman, and Pervez, a major, at the Keystone Conference Center after the sexual encounter.
"So at this point you can't deny it, you can't deny fraternization," Graf said Tuesday. "So now hours later when her supervisor contacts her again, now we are going to cry rape. Because it is the only way she can explain the sexual encounter and not get in trouble."
Rodriguez enlisted in the National Guard in August 2021 and was required to pass physical requirements for basic training. By the 2023 incident, Rodriguez still had not completed basic training, Graf said.
Graf said that in Rodriguez's phone and investigation showed that the airman believed that "being labeled as a rape victim will get her out of certain military requirements."
Rodriguez had four partners within the military, including an Air National Guard recruiter, before and after she signed documents saying she would not have sex with her recruiter. While she did release the names of the individuals, Graf said Rodriguez was in a relationship up to three days before the January 2023 incident with Pervez.
Graf called Pervez the victim in this case, talking about his service in the military and overseas. Graf added that Pervez should have been reprimanded for the fraternization, and has been harassed by sympathizers of Rodriguez's story.
"They stalk him online, they call his job, (and) they trash his name and reputation. For what?" Graf said. "That is what Fahad Pervez has been through. It's disgusting and it is irreprehensible."
Rodriguez raised more than $20,673 on GoFundMe because of the January 2023 incident, according to Graf. The district attorney said that "every single person that donated to the campaign should be asking for their money back."
Graf did not take questions from the media after the press event Tuesday, saying she would take follow-up questions from the media via email. When asked if she was not taking questions during the event because of social media campaigns against Graf, the district attorney said no.
"I could have responded to that over the last however many months and I chose not to," she said. "My job is to do my job, and to get justice for a victim, which we did in this case."
Graf added that she felt that some media coverage was not accurate in this case, but did not give any examples or name any outlets before leaving the event.
Rodriguez and her attorney's were not at Tuesday's press event.
Rodriguez's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 20 before Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge Charles Jones Jr.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth.
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon County PA DA: Rodriguez's lies about rape 'disgusting'
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