Published March 8, 2007



Immigrant is convicted of using stolen ID card

Lorena Rodriguez used a California woman's ID to apply for a job at Swift.

By ABBY SIMONS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


A federal jury on Wednesday convicted the first of several undocumented immigrants charged with identity theft following the raid in December at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown.

Following three days of testimony and about two hours of deliberations, the jury found Lorena Andrade Rodriguez, 34, guilty of all five counts stemming from her use of a stolen Social Security card to gain employment at the Swift plant in 2004.

Rodriguez, who remains in custody while awaiting sentencing, sat quietly and did not respond as a Spanish-language interpreter told her of the jury's verdict.

The mother of two testified this week that she knowingly used the identity of Cynthia Flores to obtain a Missouri identification card and later applied for a job at Swift under the same name. Rodriguez, who entered the United States in 1995, said the card was purchased for her, and she drove to Missouri to get the ID.

Rodriguez, who has a third-grade education, cannot read or speak English and reads some Spanish, attempted to justify using the identification by saying she had to work to support her family and had no legitimate identification to use.

"You knew it was a lie?" asked attorney J. Michael Mayer, who defended Rodriguez along with immigration attorney Michael Said.

"Yes," she answered through an interpreter.

"Then why did you do it?"

"Out of need," she responded.

Rodriguez testified that once she had been hired by Swift, she threw the phony birth certificate away.

Outside work, Rodriguez said she continued to go by her legal name.

The real Cynthia Flores, a Bakersfield, Calif., resident, testified that she first noticed her identification had been stolen when she received a letter in 2005 from the IRS that stated she owed $54,000 in back taxes. Those charges resulted from the various paychecks issued in Flores' name without her knowledge, prosecutors said.

Swift human resources employee Rosario Alvarez testified that he believed Rodriguez was named Cynthia Flores when she filled out applications at Swift in 2004.

However, both Rodriguez and her brother-in-law, Jose Mora, testified that Alvarez and Rodriguez are related and know each other.

"If Rosario testified that he did not know Lorena Rodriguez, would that be a lie?" Said asked Mora.

"Exactly," Mora replied through a translator.

Said said he was "flabbergasted" by the verdict.

"We have a person who lies on the stand, and clearly the jury doesn't take that into consideration," he said.

Rodriguez's husband has already been deported to Mexico. The couple's children are in the care of family friends.

Rodriguez is one of 23 people who were indicted after the Dec. 12 raids.

Reporter Abby Simons can be reached at (515) 284-8136 or asimons@dmreg.com






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