November 30th, 2009
Police investigate Job Corps student’s sexual assault claim

by BRAD ROLLINS
Managing Editor

San Marcos police are investigating a woman’s claim that she was sexually assaulted by a fellow Gary Job Corps student Friday evening in a wooded area behind Wal-Mart.

Edgar Saul Rodriguez, 21, was arrested at about 8:27 p.m. Nov. 27 and charged with sexual assault after a 21-year-old alleged victim said he pulled her into some bushes and sexually assaulted her, Sgt. Fred Wisener said. Rodriguez told police they had consensual sex.

The two were part of a larger group hanging out near the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks that run behind Wal-Mart in the 1000 block of Texas 80. The tracks run alongside Gary Job Corps’ 775 acre campus on Texas 21 in east San Marcos and are often used by students travelling to and from town on foot.

Job Corps center director Dean Hoffman declined to discuss the accusations except to say, “For anybody that is arrested, Job Corps has a zero tolerance policy where they are separated from the program.”

Gary Job Corps’ more than 1600 students can earn passes to leave campus; Hoffman declined to say if Rodriguez and his alleged victim were authorized to be off-campus. Founded in 1965 on part of what was Gary Army Air Base, Gary is the largest of 124 Job Corps centers administered by the U.S. Department of Labor.