Co-Worker Of Dead Cleaning Woman Being Tailed, Not Charged

Joseph Pabon, 26, of Staten Island, has not been charged or even called a suspect in the slaying of 46-year-old Eridania Rodriguez, whose bound body was found stuffed in an air duct Saturday in the Financial District building where she worked as a cleaning woman. But plainclothes cops are still tailing him 24 hours a day, and so is the press. With no new developments in the investigation to report, the Post has been digging into Pabon's past, and today the tabloid airs some dirty laundry on the elevator operator's family.

We already knew that Joseph Pabon was arrested in April for allegedly punching and choking Lisa Marie Blumenberg, his current girlfriend, and then throwing a bowling ball through her car window in a drunken rage. Now the Post reports that Pabon's 71-year-old father is a registered sex offender who, some years ago, was convicted of statutory rape with his son's 14-year-old ex-girlfriend after she came to him for advice on how to win Joseph back. Yesterday Blumenberg was seen taking boxes of clothes from Pabon's house and loading them in her car. And neighbor Frank Dudley tells the Staten Island Advance, "They're a little disconnected. You can't figure out anything about them." Someone's getting a bowling ball through the windshield tonight!

Pabon's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, insists his client has "nothing to hide" and held a press conference yesterday to condemn the surveillance, telling reporters, "I've never seen anything like it, I've never seen police behave or act in this manner." Pabon has voluntarily given investigators a DNA sample, and police are still awaiting the results of forensic and DNA tests conducted on the corpse. But Gallucci is confident his client's DNA "is not going to be on the body."

Meanwhile, Rodriguez's family held a wake yesterday in Inwood; her body will be flown to the Dominican Republic for burial. Her brother tells NY1, "To lose somebody in this manner is beyond words, you can't even imagine, anybody, especially a decent, hard-working woman to just be done like this, nobody deserves this. Nobody."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on July 16, 2009 10:00 AM

Comments [rss]

AnnaZed

Has it been established that this is the person that Eridania Rodriguez was afraid of, complained about to her super visor; is he that person? If she named him by name or described him or his job or where he was in the building when he was giving her the creeps and bothering her then the police have a legitimate reason to stay on top of him.

JenChungsBaby

Pretty smart of the Yankees to pay him to wear their shirt when he's being tailed by the media like that.

NannyState

There's no such thing as bad press!

sexisicilian

No, robingee: We all have a choice to stay with someone or not, I have sympathy for Mrs. Rodriquez because she was murdered. We do not live in a third world country, this is a free country last I checked. When men cheat and/or hit, trust me they ALWAYS will. Maybe you have not met a real man yet.

sexisicilian

Why do you care about this piece of shit's g-f. Mrs. Rodriguez was just doing her job & look how this poor woman was murdered. I am sick of certain women staying with violent men, I mean are you that desperate to hold on to any man??

sexisicilian

Why do you care about this piece of shit's g-f?! Please, she is a big girl!! You should care more about Ms. Rodriguez and what he did to that poor lady who was just going to work and trying to live like the rest of us. If certain women choose to stay with violent men it is their own fault.

robingee

That's a really narrow view, and I am sure your lack of sympathy shows that you have never been in a situation where you've felt threatened or scared, or had low self-esteem. Good for you.

junecarter

Dear Lisa Marie,

Get out now. Go. Seriously, you can come sleep on my couch. Unless you want to become the dead girl on a future Law & Order, you need to get as far away from this douchebag as possible. Even if he didn't kill poor Eridania Rodriguez, he's still a pig.

Sincerely,

JuneCarter

Spirit of 76

Worse yet, it seems to run in the family. You don't want to have kids like that, do you?

just saying

I hope the cops don't screw up this case.

babyfishmouth

Sounds like a wonderful family. I'd love to see what their Thanksgivings are like.

nicemarmot

Sounds like a high quality group of people there. Some people really shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.

schizofriendly

Some people really shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.

At what point in our overpopulated continuation will we as a humane society discuss this issue; all kidding aside and in the realm of the law?