More than a month after former Española Police officer Eugene Rodella and his brother allegedly attacked two owners of an Española tattoo parlor, no charges have been filed in the case.
Assistant district attorney Anthony Rivera is still “evaluating and making decisions as to what’s going to happen” with the case against Rodella, 40, and his brother Gabriel Rodella, 22, District Attorney Spence Pacheco said Monday. The brothers allegedly beat up two owners of Dragon’s Lair Hookah Lounge and Defiant Artist Tattoo Parlor Oct. 7 to avenge the shop’s treatment of their nephew T.J. Rodella the previous day.
T.J. Rodella is the son of State Rep. Debbie Rodella (D-La Mesilla) and former State Police officer and Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court judge Tommy Rodella. Multiple calls to the Rodella family have not been returned since the incident.
Despite being listed as the only suspects in the case in a State Police report, neither Rodella was arrested the night of the incident.
Eugene Rodella remains on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Española Police Lt. Christian Lopez said.
Pacheco said the five-week period that has elapsed so far since the incident is “a relatively short time” for the District Attorney’s office to make a decision on a case.
“We have to evaluate it; we have to talk to witnesses; and all of that takes time,” Pacheco said.
This is not the first time Eugene Rodella has been accused of violence and not been charged with a crime.
Eugene Rodella’s wife claimed her husband had punched her in the eye Feb. 23, 2008 during a dispute in their Hernandez home, according to a State Police report.
Eugene Rodella claimed he didn’t strike his wife, and instead said she must have been hit with the corner of a backpack as he was putting it on.
His wife’s coworker told police she came to work after the incident with her eye bandaged and said her husband hit her. She told the coworker she didn’t call police because her husband “threatened her with her life by telling her that dead people don’t talk.” Rodella’s wife didn’t report the incident until about a month after the incident but took pictures of the injury, which accompany the report
An order of protection she filed against Eugene Rodella following the alleged beating states, “I am also terrified of (Rodella’s) father Robert Rodella, brothers Gabriel Rodella, Ronald Rodella, Tommy Rodella (magistrate judge).”
Eugene Rodella also filed for an order for protection a day after his wife, and court documents show a temporary order of protection keeping the two away from each other was granted to both parties.
The domestic violence case was assigned to former Assistant District Attorney Jason Montclare, who handled felony domestic violence cases in Rio Arriba County until earlier this year. Montclare determined it was only a misdemeanor case and handed it off to former assistant district attorney Lorili Powell, who is no longer with the District Attorney’s office. Assistant district attorney Gilberto Juarez inherited the case from Powell, but no charges have been filed, over a year and a half after the incident. Juarez didn’t return a call for comment.
In March of this year, Eugene Rodella was suspended by the Law Enforcement Academy over the incident and is currently on probation with that agency. A hearing on the latest incident has yet to be held.
An older domestic violence case against Eugene Rodella was never pursued because his wife eventually told police she didn’t want to proceed, according to a State Police report.
Eugene Rodella’s wife disclosed to former Española Police lieutenant Annabelle Gasca that her husband drove his patrol car into her Nov. 30, 2006, knocking her over. State Police took a report based on Gasca’s account.
When former State Police agent Tomas Salazar interviewed Eugene Rodella, he said his wife might have fallen down when he opened the car door.
“I told Officer Eugene Rodella there were a lot of people concerned about his well being and having seen the difference in his behavior since returning from Iraq,” Salazar’s report states. “I cited examples of him being short tempered, lack of patience, and not wanting to take reports.”
Eugene Rodella had served as a sergeant with the National Guard in the Iraq War before returning home in 2005.
His wife refused to speak with Salazar about the investigation, the report states, so it was closed and submitted to the District Attorney’s office for review.
A.J. Salazar, who headed the District Attorney’s office in Española at the time of the incident, said she told him in December 2006 that she refused to cooperate with police because she feared for her safety and the safety of her children.
“(Eugene Rodella would) hurt her worse or even kill her,” she told him.