A teenager who was recently caught with a dead fetus inside a bag while shoplifting from Victoria’s Secret has been released.
17-year-old Tiona Rodriguez pled not guilty on Saturday to charges of petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. The Medical Examiner has not yet completed an autopsy of the fetus which means more charges could arrive at a later time.
Tiona is not receiving death threats from angry rights to life groups and other outraged citizens.
Speaking to the Daily News defense lawyer Genay Ann Leitman reveals: “The mother informed me that Tiona was getting threats on the Internet.”
The threats became so severe that Tiona Rodriguez was forced tho shut down her Facebook page. It was on that social network that many of the threats were being recorded.
It should be noted that Facebook does track threats across its network and in many cases reports those threats to local authorities.
Rodriguez, the mother of a two-year-old son, was released without bail over the weekend. Upon her release the judge pleaded with the young girl to “please go to school, do your homework.”
Investigators are still not sure how the baby died or why the young girl was carrying the fetus in a bag while shoplifted at Victoria’s Secret.
Her lawyer told reporters Saturday, “Right now, there’s no proof that she facilitated the death of the baby. She’s a 17-year-old who just had a child die. It’s pretty traumatic for anybody, kid or adult.”
Making the case even stranger was the “blank eyed” expression the young girl gave to the judge and others during her court appearance. Speaking to the judge prosecutor Robert Hettleman said, “The NYPD, my office, and the office of the chief medical examiner are going to continue to vigorously and thoroughly investigate this matter relating to the baby. But at this time, doing that shoplifting with the baby in her bag the entire time certainly suggests a little bit of difficulty following society’s rules.”
No further details about the dead fetus in the bag have been made available at this time.
