At least one other officer knew about undercover video in J. Rodriguez case

Reporter: Taylor Petras
Published: Updated:
Jay Rodriguez case (WINK News)

Undercover video from a 2013 prostitution sting never mentioned in an official police report—that’s according to an FDLE arrest warrant for Fort Myers Police Captain Jay Rodriguez.

However, WINK News discovered otherwise Wednesday.

“Normally, if an officer works undercover and he’s using video, that video is then submitted as evidence. This video was never submitted as evidence, so you have to wonder what was going on,” said retired police chief, Walter Zalisko.

When investigators questioned the other officers involved in the sting, they all denied having any knowledge about the video and said they didn’t know Rodriguez was wearing a camera.

Zalisko says, that’s highly unlikely. “So internal affairs may be looking at them too. If they knew that a crime was committed, why didn’t you bring this to our attention earlier?”

The FDLE warrant shows at least one detective telling investigators he did see the video six years ago. When asked what this could mean for the other criminal cases Rodriguez handled during more than two cases on the force, Zalisko said:

It would definitely be wise for the police department to do their due diligence on this to see what other cases he was involved in and if there were any issues with those cases. It could be some important cases that could be jeopardized there.

We asked both Fort Myers Police and the State Attorney’s Office if they would look back at any old cases, but have not heard back.

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