HOUSTON – Sylvia Rodriguez says she’s been harassed by the same man for four years and can’t get the help she needs from Houston police. A survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, Rodriguez said she needed to come forward.
“Because if anything does happen to me, I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to do, legally, by calling 911, having them lie to me, right? Having them not take this serious. This is my life,” Rodriguez said.
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Update from Houston Police
On Monday, Turner heard from police about Sylvia’s case.
A public information officer says a detective has spoken to Rodriguez. The detective in the process of trying to determine what evidence she does or does not have so the investigation can move forward.
SYLVIA’S JOURNEY
Rodriguez says this all started in 2003 when she was sexually assaulted. She says she never got any justice in her case. She started advocating for other survivors and in 2020 tried helping a client get out of an abusive and violent relationship. The abuser then started harassing Rodriguez. She filed a police report. The harassment got worse.
“He’s going to kill me. He’s going to kill me. And he’s going to make me disappear. I’m going to regret what I’m doing. I should learn to mind my own business,” she said.
She says getting a restraining order is difficult.
“You have to have your police reports, investigations, showing, and even trying to prove that something is happening. But if I can’t get past a 911 call, how are they going to help me?”
Rodriguez filed another report in 2023 because she says the same man was threatening to physically hurt her. Police have not done a thing over the past year, Rodriguez says, and she’s starting to lose faith.
“They’re there to protect and serve. Who? I don’t know, but it’s not, they’re not there, they’re not protecting and serving me, right?”
Houston Police said Rodriguez’s case is not part of the 264,000 incident reports that were not fully investigated. They did tell us they’ve assigned an investigator to her case.
Dr. Terrell Conte, a domestic violence expert who helped Rodriguez, says even though Rodriguez’s case is not among the ones suspended, it’s still disappointing to hear about those reports.
“It’s kind of like when you see a roach, and you think, oh, it’s just a roach. But then there’s many, many roaches somewhere behind the scenes. So if these are the numbers that we know that were not investigated, how many numbers could there possibly be that we do not know of?” Terrell wonders.
A detective has been assigned to Sylvia’s case.