The case of Tiona Rodriguez, the 17-year-old who was allegedly caught shoplifting at the Herald Square Victoria's Secret last month while toting a dead fetus in her purse, is being probed by the one of the DA's top prosecutors, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann, the Daily News reports.
Seidemann's past victories include locking up Astor son Anthony Marshall, as well as securing a murder conviction against Nicholas Brooks, who was found guilty of killing his designer girlfriend at SoHo House in 2010. Rodriguez, for her part, was assigned homicide attorney Earl Ward, who represented the pitcher Roger Clemens' trainer during a federal steroid probe.
The incident happened on October 17th when a Victoria's Secret guard spotted Rodriguez and a friend allegedly taking items from the racks at the lingerie chain's Herald Square location. Police were in the process of cuffing the girls when they discovered that Rodriguez, who is also mother to a two-year-old boy, was walking around with a fetus in a shopping bag. A preliminary autopsy reports that the baby was born almost full-term and died of asphyxiation, and fluid in its lungs indicate that it may have drowned.
Rodriguez allegedly told cops she was only six months pregnant, and that she had miscarried. She added that she didn't know what to do with the fetus, which is why she was carrying it around at the Victoria's Secret. She's been charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property for a pair of pilfered skinny jeans.
