On Monday, January 28, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.’s former attorney, Richard Ney, testified at a hearing in federal court before U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson that prior to Rodriguez’s kidnapping and murder trial in 2006, he considered using mental deficiency as a defense, but decided against it based on the findings of an IQ test Rodriguez underwent. An expert in psychology determined that Rodriguez had an IQ of 87 and based on that finding. School records indicate Rodriguez, of Crookston, had IQ scores of 77 in first grade, 74 in second grade, 79 in third grade and 74 in fifth grade. Rodriguez passed eighth grade with mostly failing grades and he had to repeat his freshman year.
Under questioning from one of Rodriguez’s current attorneys, Joseph Luby, Ney alluded to information that hinted Rodriguez’s intellectual development may have been hampered by exposure to toxic chemicals during the years his family worked as migrant laborers, as well as by physical and sexual abuse at an early age. According to information from Monday’s court record, Rodriguez began using alcohol on a regular basis when he was 11 and by the age of 13, he was drinking to the point of intoxication every weekend.
The hearing that began Monday could last 10 days. Rodriguez has waived his right to be present during the proceedings and he did not attend Monday’s hearing. Rodriguez was convicted by a jury in 2006 of the 2003 kidnapping and murder of Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes.
