Cops Still Tailing Worker From Dead Cleaning Woman's Building

The NYPD has no suspects in the murder of Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who was asphyxiated with construction tape last Tuesday night in an air duct at the building where she worked. But the building's freight elevator operator, 26-year-old Joseph Pabon from Staten Island, is still under surveillance by the NYPD, and last night investigators seized a Pontiac G6 belonging to his girlfriend, Lisa Marie Blumenberg, while the two were at a batting cage. (It's unclear if this is the same car Pabon threw a bowling ball through after allegedly punching and choking Blumenberg in a drunken rage.)

While the couple was hitting some dingers, cops spotted a pair of white women's sneakers inside the Pontiac and got a search warrant for the car, which was returned late last night. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne cautions that investigators "have not identified a suspect in this case. The only person who has is Pabon's attorney." A police source tells the Daily News that Pabon "can't explain the scratches on his hands, arms and neck—or why he left work early the night Rodriguez went missing."

But Pabon's lawyer Mario Gallucci blames the scratches on "minor gardening injuries," insists the sneakers were Blumenberg's, and still says he's mulling a civil lawsuit because police previously questioned his client for 25 hours without offering him food, water or the chance to use the facilities. Gallucci tells the Staten Island Advance, "We deny the allegations completely and we're ready to battle. He was very tired and worn out and very upset at the way he was treated. He did nothing wrong." Tests are expected back today to determine whether Rodriguez was sexually assaulted before she was murdered.

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By John Del Signore in News on July 14, 2009 11:45 AM

Comments [rss]

sexisicilian

another "beauty" standing by her man are woman so desperate to keep a man they will stay with just any murderer until he kills her. oh yeah he gardens too, all the guidos on Staten Island do & I have a bridge to sell you ... haha

NannyState

Yankees shirt. Case closed.

Snoopy

Give the guy a break, he's a freight elevator operator. You don't get in that position without having a decent head on your shoulders. So being a Yankee fan wasn't the smartest move he made in his life. People are allowed to make a few mistakes.

Does the guy actually have a garden? I can see maybe a basil plant in the window, a fig tree and perhaps a few tomato plants, but a garden?

He's guilty as charged.

theevilone

He looks like a gardening enthusiast. Brings a hoe with him everywhere...

Rfive

+2

hotstepper

oh snap.

Spirit of 76

What I'll never understand is why women stay with guys like this. If a woman threw a bowling ball through my car window, I'd be say, "Arriverderci, baby, and don't let the door hit you on the way out."

robingee

"He can change."

"I can change him."

"I deserved it."

"He's only like that sometimes. You don't see him when he's really sweet."

"I am scared to leave him."

"I cannot do any better."

Dead Himmler

If those women were not like that I would be very lonely.

theevilone

The girlfriend is psyched now. This is the safest she's ever been. He's not going to lay a hand on her with an army of police watching.

The fact that she probably doesn't have two brain cells to rub together may also be the reason she keeps going back to him.

hotstepper

seconded. i've asked female friends/relatives their opinions on that but couldn't get a sufficient explanation since they were not victims themselves.

Peter

His "scratches from gardening" remind me of Hiram Monserrate's girlfriend and her face-first fall onto a drinking glass.

whitecastlerock

A guido Yankee fan from Staten Island with rage issues... I say keep tailing him

nicemarmot

When the test results come back they'll either arrest him or stop tailing him. Him lawyering up and having his lawyer get aggressive before he's been charged with anything makes me suspicious. As if the evidence wasn't suspicious enough already...

just saying

"Police say Pabon can't explain the scratches on his hands, arms and neck - or why he left work early the night Rodriguez went missing. His lawyer insists the scratches were minor gardening injuries."

Really? How do you get scratches on your hands, arms and neck from "gardening"?

afbnegx3

Pabon does not look like he's into gardening.

robingee

So Pabon cannot explain the scratches but his lawyer can? Whose arms are they?

Snoopy

He was rearranging his prize rose bushes, that's how he got his scratches. Also his berry bushes needed some attention because the red raspberries will be ripe by the end of this week.