Follow-up: Suspect pleads guilty in Northeast assault-and-run case

Rodney Arreguin has pled guilty
to numerous charges,
including assault of a woman
on a bike in Northeast Portland.

Back in December, Katie Hughes was riding her bike in Northeast Portland when a man in a car drove up beside her, pushed her to the ground, robbed her, threatened to kill her, and then sped away.

The suspect, Rodney Arreguin, was implicated in a string of similar brazen robberies and assaults over a two-day span and was arrested by the Portland Police a day later.

Now, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office informs me that Mr. Arreguin has pled guilty to five counts of robbery, attempted kidnapping, felony hit-and-run, assault, and reckless driving.

He will be sentenced on April 14th in downtown Portland.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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Joe
Joe
16 years ago

He used a car as a get away.. hmmm try and
ride away from me after doing that..

Glad he\’s maybe getting a clue and all is
well. look out for eachother is key.

Bikebillboards dot blogspot dot com

How to Avoid Crackers, Without Really Trying: Use a rear-view helmet mounted mirror.

woogie
woogie
16 years ago

Let\’s see what he gets for punishment.

All too often a guilty plea is brought on by a plea bargain and the guilty party gets off with a reduced sentence.

The DA gets a check in the win column and the victims feel like they got the short end of the stick.

steve
steve
16 years ago

What would you like to happen to him Woogie?

woogie
woogie
16 years ago

Here\’s where I\’m coming from. My co-worker was run off the road at 45 mph by a pickup truck with a trailer. The driver was passing on a double yellow on a very curvy down hill.

My co-worker had a compression fracture of the spine as well as a severely fractured ankle that required 2 surgeries to put back together and as of now (9 months later) does not have a diagnosis of full recovery.

The driver was charged with a felony hit and run causing bodily harm, and plead down to a misdemeanor. He got 100 hours of community service and a slap on the wrist fine. The DA got the conviction at the expense of justice.

I would like to see all charges stick and the punishment be commensurate with the crime. I don\’t want any of these to be downgraded or dropped at sentencing.

I also don\’t want to see a concurrent sentence. If he gets 5 years for each count, he can serve 25 years.

I\’m not calling for the death sentence here, just something in line with the crime. He took more than just money from his victims.

Pete
Pete
16 years ago

How about a group of much bigger folks jump him when he least expects it, push him to the ground, and threaten and rob him? Oh wait, we\’d be violating his civil rights. Let\’s give him suspended concurrent sentences and probation instead – that\’ll teach him. Woogie hit the nail on the head, unfortunately.

The folks who did a similar thing to my friend and I learned from their mistakes – they used pepper spray to blind their next victims so they couldn\’t be identified so easily.

Best wishes in your recovery, Katie.

Torfinn
Torfinn
16 years ago

2 words, Prison-sex.

m
m
16 years ago

2 more words.

not-funny.

don\’t get me wrong, I don\’t want this guy to get off lightly. But his punishment should be within the confines of the law and not the result of a serious problem that many people seem to think is a joke.

boib
boib
16 years ago

1 word:

castration

Anyone who injures a bicyclist, whether on a cycle or not, should be sterilized. That way you cannot pass on your idiot genes.

Opus the Poet
16 years ago

You know, I think this guy would qualify for a trip to Gitmo, one-way. He targeted a specific group of citizens based on their appearance or affiliation, and he attacked for the purpose of instilling a change of group behavior by fear. That\’s the federal definition of terrorism. Only thing is I think Gitmo is too nice a place for the likes of him…

Opus

m
m
16 years ago

it\’s too bad people intelligent enough to utilize a bicycle as a form of transportation can succumb to the same reactionary group thinking one might expect in fundamentalist religions or street gangs. A guy harasses you on the street is a terrorist? Give me a break. I\’m not even going to dignify that with a reasoned response. Castration? How civilized.

Cyclists are people and citizens, before they are \”cyclists\”. Same goes for criminals. Thus they do get (and deserve) \”civil rights\”. You may not like it, but this is the society we have. I guess we can all go back to \”eye for an eye\” if you don\’t like it. Or some variant of mob rule. I certainly wouldn\’t want to live in such a society, at least not with people who take seriously the emotive, reactionary posts made in this thread!

But maybe I should give some of you the benefit of the doubt. You aren\’t being serious, you\’re just letting off steam, right? Probably should not have asked… I anticipate not liking the answer…

woogie
woogie
16 years ago

m,

\”An eye for an eye\” does not mean physically abuse someone as punishment for doing wrong.

Please go back and read the source Exodus 21, 23-27.

It is meant to imply that the punishment must be fair and match the crime. It is about limiting retribution to a level that is fair.

m
m
16 years ago

woogie, for what it\’s worth I wasn\’t really referring to your post. I find 25 years kind of extreme, but not really out of line. I find \”prison sex\”, \”castration\”, \”jumping the guy in a dark room\”, and \”send him to gitmo\” out of line. Cruel and unusual, if you will. I think \”eye for an eye\” was bad terminology on my part in describing what I meant. Sorry bout that.

That said, saying he took \”more than just money\”… that\’s a really difficult thing to quantify. Even for our relatively advanced legal system. Especially in terms of prison years. I\’m not saying I have any grand solutions but the \”revenge\” mentality portrayed here doesn\’t strike me as the best, most productive. And no I do not want to see this guy let off with an easy sentence cause of his plea; he should see a good amount of time in jail (15 yrs seems reasonable). But by the same token there are people in the world doing far worse things than a random street thug. We don\’t stick them in jail, we make them presidents and CEO\’s.

Torfinn
Torfinn
16 years ago

Serious cat, is appalled at your behaviour.

Zach
Zach
16 years ago

I\’ll bet at least one of the charges he pled guilty to carries a measure 11 minimum sentence – and with everything he did, it\’s no wonder he pled out: I\’m sure the ADA held an ~80 year sentence over his head if tried and convicted on all charges.

jessica22
15 years ago

I know rodney, and he really is a good guy just got caught in a bad situation and started making bad decisions. It could happen to anybody