Marysville's 'bulldog' tracks down sex offender

He used at least eight aliases and several Social Security numbers, crossed state lines and the Mexican border at least twice, and eluded police for more than a decade.

Antonio Mata-Rodriguez, aka Jose Antonio Rodriguez, aka Antonio Jose Mata-Rodriguez, etc. — a former Marysville resident whose original conviction was for lewd and lascivious acts with a minor — was finally nabbed in Utah on Oct. 9 for his failure to register as a sex offender.

His last known residence was on Fifth Street. But that was back in 1997.

Crime Scene Investigator Lynda Cummings of the Marysville Police Department had been in pursuit of Rodriguez, now 55, ever since she took responsibility in 2001 for tracking sex offenders.

It was Cummings' persistence, said her supervisor, Sgt. Chris Sachs, that led to the arrest.

"Lynda is our bulldog," he said.

A mom and admitted child safety fanatic, Cummings keeps records on the 57 convicted sex offenders living within Marysville's boundaries. Four, she said, are currently out of compliance.

"I try to keep a good handle on these people," she said.

The Rodriguez case had collected quite a bit of dust by the time she got hold of it. An arrest warrant had been issued in 1998, but was long expired.

After requesting and receiving a new $50,000 felony warrant, Cummings made rounds and followed tips.

When she realized her suspect had been using multiple aliases and Social Security numbers, she knew his trail wouldn't be easy to follow. But she filed every alias she learned about in the local dispatcher's database — a move that also enters the information into a national database.

One day in 2006, a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agent called from Sacramento to say that a woman with one of Rodriguez's Social Security numbers had made an appointment to begin the process toward citizenship.

That tip, said Cummings, "began his spiral downward."

The woman, still legally married to the suspect, told Cummings her husband had been physically abusive and that she had been avoiding him.

The last she'd heard, he had been incarcerated in Mexico for a stabbing.

Correspondence with officials in Mexico netted no helpful information: Her suspect had recently been released from prison and was, again, at large.

Cummings went back to the drawing board, continuing to check in with anybody in Yuba and Sutter counties she thought might have associated with Rodriguez.

"This guy was so frustrating," she said.

In June of this year, the Marysville Police Department received a phone call from the Los Angeles International Airport. A man had used one of the suspect's aliases to get into the country.

Police could not confirm he was the same man Cummings had been searching for, so they took down the address of a relative Rodriguez claimed to be visiting, and released him.

Los Angeles police went to the address and found a man claiming to be the suspect's son. The man claimed to have no information but later admitted his father had been there very recently and was en route to a funeral somewhere in Utah.

"Every time I turn around, I'm five minutes behind this guy," Cummings said, laughing.

On Oct. 9, she got a call from officials in Layton, Utah. Her suspect had applied to become a permanent resident of that state.

He was extradited to California and held at Yuba County Jail until his arraignment late in October. He pleaded guilty and was returned to Mexico, Cummings said.

Cummings' co-workers said they are not surprised that her pursuit was ultimately successful.

"If Lynda feels strongly about something like this, you're not going to stop her," said Kim Lopez, a police dispatcher.

Cummings had been ready to celebrate her birthday when she got the news of Rodriguez's capture.

"That was the best 54th birthday present I could have hoped for," she said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com