An Atlantic City teen who admitted to stabbing a minor during a melee outside a grade school was given probation, BreakingAC has learned.
Jennifer Rodriguez, 18, pleaded guilty to third-degree aggravated assault and fourth-degree possession of a weapon.
Traffic was backed up on the 100 block of North Texas Avenue, as the officer responding to “unknown trouble outside the school” wrote in the affidavit of probable cause previously reported by BreakingAC.
The assistant principal then told him there was a large fight involving about 12 to 15 people including students and others that do not attend the school, Officer Sean Pettit wrote in the affidavit.
Units on the scene reported that a boy was stabbed in the chest, and put out a description of the suspect, who was wearing a black ski mask and black Adidas track pants, Pettit wrote.
He then saw Rodriguez, who matched the description, walking on the 100 block of North Texas Avenue.
She turned and walked the other way when she saw him walking toward her, according to the affidavit.
The officer had just seen Rodriguez without the mask by the school with her brothers, he wrote. He was familiar with her due to prior police contact and called her by name, ordering “Jennifer” to stop.
Rodriguez did not comply, and she ran north on Texas and then east on Fairmont Avenue. When the officer threatened to deploy his taser, she finally complied and was arrested, the affidavit states.
The officer found a knife hidden inside her left jacket sleeve as he handcuffed her, according to the report.
Rodriguez, who just turned 18 in January, already has a history of weapons making her a threat to the safety of the community, the judge said in rendering her decision.
“Why in the world does she keep going back to a school at 18 years old?” Judge Patricia Wild asked at the time.
Rodriguez was released after her plea in June, and has since been sentenced to two years' probation with 90 days in the county jail, according to court records.
She already had been in the Atlantic County Justice Facility for more than three months at the time of her release.
Rodriguez also must undergo anger management under the plea agreement.
The boy's injury was minor, according to the affidavit. He was treated at the hospital and released.
