D.C. police are again investigating an aide to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) in connection with a domestic dispute, a department spokesman said, five months after the aide was accused of assaulting his now ex-wife and briefly placed on leave.
A spokeswoman for Bowser declined to comment.
Police had arrested Rodriguez in connection with the November incident, but prosecutors did not pursue a misdemeanor simple-assault charge. At that time, Bowser put Rodriguez on leave. She later reinstated him.
Reporters learned Rodriguez had returned to city government in February when he appeared in the background of a news conference Bowser held to open the first Commercial Corridor Hub, an office in Chinatown to help combat crime and drug addiction. Questioned by reporters at that time, Bowser said an internal investigation “showed me that Chris could return to work and be a high-level and high-functioning official in our administration.”
The mayor said her review “sends the message that I take domestic violence very seriously. I have conducted an investigation and after that investigation, I treated my employee fairly.” According to the city salary database, Rodriguez earns $246,930 a year.
The incident in November came amid an argument between Rodriguez and his then wife, Amanda Rodriguez, at their home near American University in Northwest Washington. The police report says Amanda Rodriguez alleged her husband “pushed her on the ground with both hands.”
Later, attorneys representing Amanda and Christopher Rodriguez issued a joint statement agreeing that neither harmed the other or intended for either to be arrested “as a result of their verbal dispute.” They said a family medical emergency had “created extreme stress and anxiety.”
Court documents show the couple proceeded toward a divorce, granted Friday morning. Amanda Rodriguez said in an interview she was granted sole use of the house until June 5.
On Friday afternoon, hours after the divorce was finalized, Amanda Rodriguez called D.C. police and told them her former husband had unlawfully entered her home and left only when she notified authorities. D.C. police classified the report as an “unlawful entry” investigation but made no immediate arrest.
Paris Lewbel, a police spokesman, said the case “remains under investigation.”
On Monday, Amanda Rodriguez, using her maiden name, Augustenborg, filed a petition for a temporary protection order in D.C. Superior Court, naming Christopher Rodriguez as a respondent and making several allegations, according to court documents. A judge granted it the next day.
In those documents, she alleged that on the Friday their divorce was finalized, Rodriguez called her eight times and then came to the house and repeatedly rang the doorbell. He left, she wrote, and then returned and “forced his way into my home through the back yard.” She alleged in the document that he went into her bedroom and was “shouting and cursing” at her and another man, and initially refused to leave. The document does not elaborate precisely on how he reportedly entered the home.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Peter Kent Odom, said that as of Thursday morning, his client had not been served with court papers and that Rodriguez learned of the new allegations from The Washington Post.
“It is most unfortunate that one party has decided to publish in the newspaper highly personal and sensitive family matters,” Odom said in a statement. He added that Rodriguez “looks forward to answering each and every one of these claims at the appropriate time and in the appropriate forum.”
The terms of the temporary restraining order are in effect until April 15, when a hearing is set and a judge will decide whether to grant a full civil protection order. Amanda Rodriguez is asking that her former husband be barred from contacting her and to stay away from her work, home and vehicle. She is also requesting temporary custody of their three children.
Before becoming an assistant city administrator last year, Christopher Rodriguez had led the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, putting him in charge of responding to crises, including the pandemic.
His arrest in November came three weeks after Bowser had promoted him to acting chief technology officer, which requires confirmation by the D.C. Council. When Bowser reinstated him, that job was no longer offered, and he returned to being the assistant city administrator.
