Prisoner fights handcuffs
Holding area scene of resistance
By Bobbi Mlynar , Brandy Nance
Thursday, March 5, 2009
A man found guilty of raping a child under 14 years old had to be subdued and handcuffed Wednesday after the verdict was read in Judge Jeffry J. Larson's courtroom in Lyon County District Court.
The jury for the case found Luis Rojas-Marceleno guilty of one count of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child, three counts of aggravated criminal sodomy of a child and one count of raping a child.
He was found not guilty of two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy of a child and three counts of raping a child.
Rojas-Marceleno had been free on $100,000 bond before the trial began on Feb. 23. The jury returned its verdict on Wednesday.
Rojas-Marceleno apparently resisted being handcuffed when court security officers took him into a holding area outside the courtroom. The holding area leads to an underground walkway to the Lyon County Jail.
“They said he resisted there,” Sheriff Gary Eichorn said this morning. “Everything I gather from the officers, they had an issue and they controlled it without any other events taking place.”
Eichorn said that he had received several briefings on the incident. Court security officers, who are commissioned sheriff’s deputies, did not need to use their guns or Tasers to subdue Rojas-Marceleno.
“They just had to take him down on the floor and cuff him, and that was the extent of it,” Eichorn said. “(Prisoners) just can’t resist. They have to comply to my officers. ... They took care of the situation and it didn’t escalate.”
The quick action by the two officers was mentioned this morning by Chief District Judge Merlin Wheeler and County Attorney Marc Goodman.
“Yesterday could have been really ugly,” Goodman said, commending court security. “For most of the people, they don’t think about it. ... It’s the sort of thing you don’t think about until it blows up in your face.”
Wheeler talked about the importance of officers being in place in the courtrooms.
“It just goes to show these kinds of incidents don’t give you any warning,” he said. “Had they not been in place, it would have been a difficult struggle for a lot of people.”
Neither officer was injured, Eichorn said; the prisoner received a scrape on his face.
Rojas-Marceleno is scheduled to be sentenced on April 15 at 1:15 p.m. Assistant County Attorney Amy Aranda prosecuted the case. Diane F. Barger was the attorney of record for the defendant.