A Houston Police Department officer will serve three life sentences after a jury found him guilty of three first-degree offenses of sexually assaulting a child.
Abel Diaz Rodriguez forced the 14-year-old girl to choose between physical or sexual abuse in 2014, Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady said in a press release. He also showed her a video of sexual acts, which Rodriguez had recorded secretly, that office said.
The three life sentences will be served consecutively.
“This was a heart-wrenching case,” Roady’s office wrote in a Facebook post.
The victim and her sisters reported the crimes in 2015. The victim said she was afraid to report the incidents because Rodriguez had been in law enforcement and had made threats in the past, according to Roady’s office.
Rodriguez retired in 2007 after working 25 years as a Houston police officer, the Associated Press reported.