A Chehalis man known for organizing mixed martial arts fighting events in Lewis County has been arrested on charges of child molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Roy Rodriguez Jr., 46, was arrested Jan. 3 on charges of child molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor related to the reported continued abuse of two girls between 2010 and 2012 while they were in his care.
According to Lewis County Superior Court documents, Rodriguez allegedly supplied a then 12-year-old girl and a 13-to-14-year-old girl with alcohol and marijuana and had them pose in various stages of undress for photos and comply with requests from online chat rooms and pornographic website live chats repeatedly between 2010 and 2012.
The victims reported that Rodriguez was usually in the room, standing so that he was off-camera but could see the computer screen, and that he went to great lengths to groom them and normalize sexualized behavior.
Both victims recalled a specific incident where Rodriguez took them both to an MMA party he was hosting “and tried to get them to drink what they believed were drinks, either spiked with an excessive amount of alcohol or drugged, so that he could let people at the party have sex with them,” and that Rodriguez got mad at them when they expressed that the drinks “tasted off and refused to finish them,” according to court documents.
While there are only two named victims in this case, investigators did identify other alleged victims during the course of the investigation. According to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office, the other victims were not included in the case because the alleged crimes occurred either past the statute of limitations or outside of Washington state, or because the other victims have chosen not to make an official report.
Of the alleged victims not included in this case, one reported that Rodriguez drugged her and potentially had sex with her while she was unconscious; two reported that Rodriguez raped them; and one reported that Rodriguez molested her when she was 9 or 10 years old.
The first named victim submitted a report to the Chehalis Police in August of 2018, and the second named victim stepped forward in August 2020.
During the investigation, at least seven different witnesses “expressed concern that if charges are brought against Roy Rodriguez, that he will kill them, or their families, or ‘shoot up’ their families,” and Rodriguez allegedly told a family member that he “is working on getting a gun because he could not go back to jail,” according to Lewis County Superior Court documents.
Rodriguez was previously convicted on a rape of a child charge in Grays Harbor County stemming from an incident in June 1992, and was also convicted on a bail jumping charge from an incident in August 1994.
Rodriguez is currently being held in the Lewis County Jail on a $500,000 bail and awaits an hearing on Jan. 7.
