A former deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has admitted to sexually assaulting two female inmates while on duty at the Theo Lacy Facility, as reported by the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Arcadio Rodriguez, age 30, pleaded guilty to charges including a misdemeanor count of sexual battery and was sentenced to time already served—a total of 364 days—along with being required to register as a sex offender.
Rodriguez, who hails from Stanton, was also found with a cell phone in the correctional facility, compounding his offenses with a misdemeanor charge for the device’s possession. According to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, the disgraced deputy had been under GPS monitoring since January 2025 and has now also been placed on one-year formal probation. The investigation that led to his arrest was initiated after the department became aware of illicit communications pointing towards Rodriguez's inappropriate sexual conduct with the inmate.
The incidents in question, which began as early as May 2022, involved Rodriguez establishing unprofessional relationships with the female inmates, engaging in sexual battery by touching them intimately over their clothing, and showing them pornographic videos of himself. "These women were awaiting trial and had no way of escaping a predator who literally held the keys to their captivity and ordered them to perform at his every whim," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement made by the Orange County DA’s office. Spitzer has actively sought legislative change to enable more severe charges, pushing to reclassify such misconduct as a possible felony rather than just a misdemeanor. The prosecution of the case was managed by Senior Deputy District Attorney David McMurrin of Special Prosecutions.
