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Emmy award winning Sacramento news anchor resigns after felony shoplifting charges

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/05/6606795/fox40-anchor-resigns-from-station.html

There is no denying Sabrina Rodriguez has talent.

The Fox40 anchor lists five Emmy awards on her Facebook page, and that doesn’t include two more she received at a gala ceremony June 14 in San Francisco, not far from the Bay Area home where she grew up and went to college.

Colleagues and supporters describe her as having the rare ability to fill the camera and mesmerize viewers.

“She was one of the most popular faces on Fox40 until today, and probably one of the most recognized faces in the Sacramento region,” said Doug Elmets, a high-profile communications and crisis management expert who knows Rodriguez. “I think there are a lot of people that believed Sacramento was simply a way station for a much more significant media market.”

But somewhere along the way something went terribly wrong, authorities say. Her career at KTXL-TV ended Tuesday with her resignation in the wake of felony counts charging her with being involved in a shoplifting scheme last year with her fiancé, who has been jailed on separate charges that he burned down their south Sacramento home in May while manufacturing hash oil from marijuana.

The fiancé, 30-year-old Nicholas Gray, is being held in the Sacramento County jail without bail and is described in court documents as boasting of shoplifting up to $200,000 in clothing in a two-month span. He has not entered a plea in the case. Court records indicate Gray, a marijuana dispensary worker, has a criminal history that includes convictions for burglary, resisting an officer and using force against a woman.

Rodriguez, who is out of custody on $10,000 bail, has not commented publicly on her case, but issued a statement Tuesday afternoon distancing herself from Gray.

“As of today I have severed my ties with Nick Gray,” she wrote in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. “I am now focusing on life decisions as I move forward with the support of family, friends, viewers and the community.”

Her lawyer has denied the charges, and Rodriguez earlier announced her decision Tuesday to resign on her Twitter account and her Facebook page, where her profile photo shows her posing with two Emmy statues.
Click to expand...

Rodriguez, 31, had been at Fox 40 since 2011, coming to the station from Bakersfield. She also has worked in Oregon and on the East Coast, and her résumé lists prestigious journalism awards that include a 2012 Edward R. Murrow award for feature reporting and a 2008 Associated Press investigative reporting award.

The shoplifting allegations spilled into the open with the filing of charges Thursday against Rodriguez stemming from a shopping trip to the Folsom Outlets in March 2013.

That incident came three months after Rodriguez reported a Christmas Day story for the station on how easy one anonymous shoplifter found it to steal high-end purses from area shops. That story has since been removed from the Fox40 website, but its text has been reproduced on a site run by a former KTXL producer, thedesk.matthewkeys.net.

According to court documents, Rodriguez’s legal troubles stem from a March 26, 2013, shopping trip with Gray to the Coach store at the Folsom Outlets.

Another shopper told a store employee they saw Gray stuff several wallets into his bag and walk out without paying, and the employee called Folsom police, according to a case summary filed in Sacramento Superior Court. Employees determined 10 wallets worth $2,484 had been taken, and surveillance video from the store showed Rodriguez pick up a wallet and shake it at Gray, who then took it and others and placed it in his bag, court records state.

“It appears that Rodriguez is selecting wallets and helping conceal the actions of Gray as he places them in his bag,” a case summary filed in court states.

Rodriguez was detained at the outlets but denied knowing anything about a theft, court documents state. Gray left the area in her car before police arrived and refused to return when police asked Rodriguez to call him, according to court documents.
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One series of messages occurred on March 13, 2013, when Gray texted Rodriguez, “Outta Vacaville. So easy. Bcbg re arranged the store. So I got 100 dlr purses,” court documents state.

The documents indicate the text message was sent on the same day that employees at the BCBG store at the Vacaville outlets filed a police report on the theft of five purses worth $640.

Investigators also found photos on the phone, including one of someone in a car holding up a Nike shoe with the security tag still attached.

“The shoe is next to Rodriguez’s head while she is in the driver’s seat of a Ford automobile,” according to the documents, which add that Rodriguez drove Gray to San Francisco so he could sell the stolen merchandise.

Another text to Rodriguez’s phone, sent Feb. 1, 2013, read, “I got 8 cashmere sweaters plus skirts I got rent,” court documents state.

The documents also state that investigators retrieved audio files from Gray’s phone discussing his drug use and other topics, including an April 10, 2013, file in which he discusses using a “Faraday cage,” a bag used by shoplifters to thwart security sensors through the use of foil linings.

“During the file Gray boasts that he has stolen up to $200,000 worth of clothing within the last two months of the recording,” the documents state. “He states that while going to San Francisco to get his methadone he steals from places like BCBG.”

Despite the evidence outlined in court documents, Rodriguez still has many supporters, including viewers who were posting messages on her Facebook page Tuesday.
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XR9ULtK.jpg
 
B

BronsonLee

Member
Gray sounds like a top level dude. Good lord.

At an absolute pie in the sky best case scenario, she's enabling him to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things. The more realistic scenario is she's his accomplice.
 
M

Mononoke

Banned
Well that is terrible. Always a shame to see a career/talent go to waste. Her fiance sounds like a real loser. Still, even if she was his accomplice, she ultimately made the decision to go along with it. Which is crazy, considering how amazing her career was (and I'm pretty sure she was making good money).

So this was either for thrills (ie. they liked stealing), or one of them went along with the other, just because they were together. Or it was a mutual thing. Either way, what a dumb thing to do.
 
S

SimleuqiR

Member
Oh I remember her...

aTE8Y68.gif


Monkey boob-grab girl.

Edit:

How is it that this intelligent, career driven, pretty woman ends up with such a low life!?
WTF women!?
 
S

ShowDog

Member
She was likely a shit journalist too, considering she wrote a story on the ease of shoplifting with anonymous sources. Using your lover (or yourself) as an anonymous source is incredibly unethical, and I wouldn't be surprised if they discover issues with some of her other reporting. Not that it takes more than one unethical story to be a terrible journalist.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Apt101 said:
It was an ordeal spending over $20 on my current wallet. I thought I was big pimping spending $40. I had no idea.
Click to expand...

You could look around Google Shopping and see wallets in the $300+ range. The most expensive ones at the top of the list are the kind you usually see women use though, the larger types that are most often put in purses/bags.
 
C

commedieu

Banned
I've known a lot of people with this problem. Wealthy people, who have a problem, almost out of their control, to shoplift.

Was on a date with this gal, she lifted a bracelet we were looking at. I reminded her not to do it with black folks around (me) next time. She was korean.

Seems like a strange tick.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
commedieu said:
I've known a lot of people with this problem. Wealthy people, who have a problem, almost out of their control, to shoplift.

Was on a date with this gal, she lifted a bracelet we were looking at. I reminded her not to do it with black folks around (me) next time. She was korean.

Seems like a strange tick.
Click to expand...

Kleptomania.

Winona Ryder had the same problem.
 
Rest

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
I've never seen her before. I guess I haven't watched the local news in a long time.
 
V

Valnen

Member
Doesn't seem like something to resign for unless she was stealing from her own company. Though I suppose they would have fired her anyway, whether it was actually any of their business or not.
 
J

JBourne

maybe tomorrow it rains
SimleuqiR said:
Oh I remember her...

aTE8Y68.gif


Monkey boob-grab girl.

Edit:

How is it that this intelligent, career driven, pretty woman ends up with such a low life!?
WTF women!?
Click to expand...

I like how you just assumed that monkey is a low life, just because he's a monkey. Check your human privilege.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
But she's super cute, she can't have done it.
 
A

AlphaDragoon

Member
Man, she is indeed really pretty. It's a shame about the whole "it's looking like she's a scumbag criminal" part.

Oh well. Do the crime, do the time.
 
C

Cloud Strife

Member
SimleuqiR said:
Oh I remember her...

aTE8Y68.gif


Monkey boob-grab girl.

Edit:

How is it that this intelligent, career driven, pretty woman ends up with such a low life!?
WTF women!?
Click to expand...

"Ever since that day...the day the monkey...grabbed...my boob."

*Falls to knees and raises arms outstretched to the sky*

"MY BOOB!!!!"
 
TheSadRanger

TheSadRanger

Banned
SimleuqiR said:
Oh I remember her...

aTE8Y68.gif


Monkey boob-grab girl.

Edit:

How is it that this intelligent, career driven, pretty woman ends up with such a low life!?
WTF women!?
Click to expand...

The "bad boy thing" is real. I've known women who had good parents/childhood, educated, great careers and pick scummiest dudes. There's really no explanation but it exists.
 
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