Rodriguez stood before dozens of his family and friends, and shook.
With tears in his eyes, the 39-year-old sighed and hung his head in disbelief. A court officer brought him a
cup of water. Then a chair.
The room was silent but for those sighs, and the muffled conversation taking place in the corner between a
judge and two attorneys.
As he shook, dozens of family and friends waited for news on the fate of a grieving father, who had just
made the biggest mistake of his life by forgetting his children strapped into car seats on a hot summer day –
and one who they otherwise described as a doting, attentive, and dedicated man who would do anything for
his kids.
“I can’t lay out a better example of what a good father is. He’s an involved father. Loving. Always there for
his kids,” Marlon Pavon, a family friend who went to college with Rodriguez, says later, outside the
courthouse.
“He would go above and beyond if they needed something,” he tells The Independent.
The description of Rodriguez is one that seemed to contradict the underlying set of the facts before the
state of New York. It has refused so far to drop charges against the father of five who forgot two of them in a
hot car for hours after driving to his job at a Veterans Affairs hospital from his home just outside of the city
two Fridays ago.
But it’s an opinion of him that seemed to be shared among the dozens of friends and family who took time
out of their days to show support for him, even as he wrestled with the tragedy that is now taking over their
lives.
It’s an opinion that is shared by Rodriguez’s wife too; a newly grieving mother who clasped his shoulder at a
press conference after court, crying as their four-year-old son smiled at his father, and playing with his face.
Juan Rodrigues with his two twins, Phoenix and
Luna, in a photo posted online (Facebook)“I will never get over this loss, and I know he will never forgive himself for this mistake,” Marissa
Rodriguez said in statement distributed by their lawyer last weekend. “This is a horrific accident, and I need
him by my side to go through this together.”
But, even with the testimonials, the question remains: how could such a loving father ever leave his two
children in the back seat of a boiling hot car, even if it was accidental?
Well, on 26 July, according to court documents, Rodriguez – a captain in the New York national guard who
was once deployed in the Middle East – pulled into work just after 8am at the Veterans Affairs hospital,
after dropping off another of his children at daycare.