By now everyone knows that just a few weeks ago Attorney General Patricia Madrid put a child predator back on the street. However, what people may not realize is that this was not the first time:
The 20-year-old testified Tuesday that she and Rendleman’s daughter were both naked and that the daughter did not wake up during the alleged incident involving Rendleman. The witness said she didn’t immediately report the alleged incident, but told her mother about it after watching an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show concerning Little League coaches who molested players.
“I can remember it in my head to this day exactly what happened,” the witness said.
The defense is scheduled to finish cross-examining the woman this morning.
Entered into evidence Tuesday was a series of photos of Rendleman’s young daughter that he took when she was 6 years old. Prosecutors allege two of the 16 photos are pornographic. Rendleman’s attorneys maintain all of the photos are simply family shots.
The photos, which are among hundreds of photos seized by investigators who searched Rendleman’s house six years ago, depict a young blonde getting dressed for school. In the sequence of photos admitted into evidence, the girl is naked, then half clothed and then fully clothed with a pair of underwear over her head.
In two of those photos, from which the sexual exploitation charge stems, the girl’s genitals are exposed. In one, she is crawling away and looking back at the camera. In the other, she is sitting on a bed and trying to put on her socks, but her legs are spread in such way that her pubic area is centrally exposed in the photo.
Both the Santa Fe and Rio Arriba cases were filed in 1999 after a boy and a girl told their mother Rendleman had videotaped and photographed them nude.
The state Court of Appeals ruled in September 2003 that only pictures that focused “on the genitals or pubic area” and were “for purpose of sexual stimulation” would violate the law.
Rendleman had been scheduled to go on trial last September, prosecuted by a member of the state Attorney General’s Office who originally handled the case as member of the District Attorney’s Office in Santa Fe.
The case was referred back to the District Attorney’s Office two weeks before the trial began and then postponed because Rendleman’s daughter married a good friend of Attorney General Patricia Madrid.
Ah, the benefits of marriage… Fool me twice, shame on me.