Staff report

A man whose parole supervision ends Friday after serving three years in prison on convictions of sexual battery and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles in Mahoning County was secretly indicted last week by a Trumbull County grand jury on 17 charges.

Jeremiah Rodriguez, 32, who served his prison term at the Lorain Correctional Institution and was placed on supervised release in February 2022, was indicted on four courts of first-degree rape with a sexually violent predator specification, nine counts of gross sexual imposition with one sexually violent predator specification, two counts of illegal use of minor in nudity-oriented material/performance, one count of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and one count of failure to register as a sex offender.

The new charges stem from alleged crimes that occurred in Trumbull County on June 1, 2023 — after Rodriguez was released from prison and while he was on parole, according to the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office.

Rodriguez was sentenced by Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeey on June 26, 2019, to three years in prison on a third-degree felony charge of sexual battery. He was given credit for 628 days spent at the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website.

He also was sentenced to a concurrent one-and-a-half years in prison for the disseminating conviction.

Through his attorney, Rodriguez pleaded not guilty before Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Cynthia Rice during his arraignment Monday on the 17 new charges. Rice ordered him held without bond because he is considered a flight risk and a danger to the community.

The prosecutor’s office stated the new charges involve victims who are now 7 and 8 years old, meaning the alleged offenses occurred when they were between 4 and 5 years old.

The case was investigated by the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, court records show, but no further information on the alleged crimes was available Monday.

No further court hearings have been set.