Detention deputy pleads not guilty in jail sex case
| Monday, Jan 25 2010 11:04 AM
Last Updated Monday, Jan 25 2010 11:55 AM
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Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Margarita Young, left, wearing a black jacket over a white top, walks down the hallway to a courtroom for her arraignment as media personnel follow her. Young, a Kern County Detention Deputy, is charged with having sex with inmate Timothy Rodriguez. Walking next to Young is attorney Karissa Adame.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Kern County Detention Deputy Margarita Young, right, at her arraignment Monday where she was charged with having sex with inmate Timothy Rodriguez. At left is attorney Karissa Adame.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Kern County Detention Deputy Margarita Young, right, at her arraignment Monday where she was charged with having sex with inmate Timothy Rodriguez. At left is attorney Karissa Adame.
Suspended detention deputy Margarita Young, surrounded by people who wanted to shield her from news cameras, pleaded not guilty Monday to having sex with a Death Row inmate in Lerdo Jail.
Young, 48, through a stand-in attorney waived time and had further hearings set for March 23 and 24 rather than in two weeks as is general practice.
Karissa Adame, who appeared on behalf of attorney David Torres of Bakersfield, asked a judge to prohibit the news media from photographing the arraignment so as not to "seriously taint" the jury pool.
But Judge Colette Humphrey said she would let the trial judge deal with any of those issues.
Before Young even went into a courtroom, a man and a woman stood up around her to block the view of news cameras.
Neither Young nor Adame made any comments on the case.
Young is accused of unlawfully engaging in sex acts with 41-year-old Timothy Titus Rodriguez for a few weeks in October and November when he was on trial for the 2007 murder, attempted murder and robbery of two victims.
Rodriguez was sentenced to death earlier this month for the baseball bat bludgeoning death of 90-year-old Thelma Long and the serious injury beating of Long's daughter, 59-year-old Cathryn Reeves.
Other detention deputies reported suspicious behavior in November between Young and Rodriguez, and that set off an investigation. Rodriguez told investigators he had sex with Young five times in places such as an attorney visiting booth, a control booth bathroom and a mop bucket closet, according to investigative reports in the court file.
Investigators found many letters Young wrote to Rodriguez in his cell that described her love for him and contained some sexually explicit passages, according to the letters attached to the court file.
Young remains free from jail after posting $10,000 bail.
