Immigration Visa Scheme Case Gets Dismissed from Marin Court

A case involving a 29-year-old San Rafael woman who was accused of planning an armed robbery to qualify for an immigration visa has been dismissed from Marin County Superior Court.

Josselin Yuliana Rodas was arrested May 2 on charges of suspicious or willful cruelty to a child, conspiracy and making a false police report after she was involved in an armed robbery near the Mi Rancho Market at 90 Belvedere Street in the Canal neighborhood.

In the description of the incident given to police, a masked gunman approached Rodas, her 16-month-old baby and another woman as they exited Mi Pueblo. As the women were placing the baby into her car seat and groceries in the trunk, the man demanded their purses and struck the mother in the head and the other woman in the knee with a handgun during a scuffle, according to the San Rafael Police. The suspect took both purses and tore a necklace off one of the victims before fleeing the area, she said. The 16-month-old baby was not injured.

San Rafael Police Spokesperson Margo Rohrbacher said Rodas allegedly planned the incident with a juvenile male relative. Rodas had a pending immigration case and had been notified that she would have to leave the country by a certain date, so she planned the robbery so she could apply for a U-Visa due to her status as a crime victim, Rohrbacher said.

Rodas' attorney, Ford Greene, said the case was dismissed this week after “a lot of very careful investigation” determined the prosecution’s primary witness, who was the other women held at gunpoint during the robbery, was not credible.

Greene said the witness’ story kept changing, including oscillation about whether or not she knew the robber. “At first she said she didn’t, then she said she did, then she knew my client knew about the robbery. There were just a lot of difficulties with the credibility.”

“My client was very happy and very relieved to be out from under these wrongful accusations,” Greene said.

Rohrbacher said Rodas' male juvenile co-conspirator fled the country shortly after the crime and investigators are continuing their efforts to locate him.

The U-Visa program became effective in the United States in 2007. A U-Visa may be granted to undocumented aliens who are the victims of specific serious crimes and who have cooperated with authorities in the investigation and prosecution of the offender, she said.