Pubdate: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Section: Pinellas, page 1 Copyright: 2002, The Tribune Co. Contact: http://www.tampatrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446 Author: Stephen Thompson, of the Tribune MAN ACCUSED OF VICTIMIZING GRANDMOTHER ST. PETERSBURG - He pawned her sewing machine, forged her signature on her checks, and made her drive him to drug holes on the south side of St. Petersburg so he could pay off drug dealers, sworn statements say. The accused man's victim, according to police? His 82-year-old grandmother. Ronald Rodts, 34, was arrested Aug. 6, on charges that included forgery, grand theft, dealing in stolen property, possession of cocaine, exploitation of the elderly and elderly abuse. Since then, he has been held without bail at the Pinellas County Jail, and on Tuesday, a judge refused to reduce it. But Rodts' grandmother, who asked that her name not be used to avoid further embarrassment, rose to his defense. She described some of the charges as either bogus or blown out of proportion. And she blamed her grandson's addiction to crack for his actions. ``They say when they're on crack, nothing matters to them but that,'' said the woman, who works as a toll collector at the Sunshine Skyway. ``That kid always loved me, even when I bawled him out. He'd say, `I love you, Grandma.' '' Rodts, she said, has serious emotional problems and has been hospitalized for treatment. And she's been caring for him since he was 5 years old because ``his mother didn't want him.'' ``We never had any trouble with him until he started drinking, having DUIs and stuff that like,'' she said. When Rodts was arrested, police found him with a crack cocaine pipe containing some residue of the drug, and Rodts said he had smoked the drug earlier that day, according to jail affidavits. The picture painted by the affidavits is that of a man who used his grandmother to support his habit. He made her drive him to a drug hole at 2:30 a.m. on one occasion because, he said, he would be killed by drug dealers if he didn't pay them off, the documents say. But the grandmother said this week that she didn't drive him anywhere unless she wanted to. What she doesn't dispute is something else in the affidavits - that drug dealers have gone to her mobile home and pointed guns at both her and Rodts, demanding their money. Rodts is also accused of forging his grandmother's signature on six checks for about $220 worth of goods; withdrawing $1,730 from her banking account; and pawning her cordless drill, wet-dry vacuum and her sewing machine, the affidavits say. In general, he beat her if she refused to drive him wherever he needed to go, one affidavit says. And one day in July, he shoved her in her kitchen, and she fell, hitting her face on the stove on the way to the floor, which caused bruising and swelling, the affidavits say. But the grandmother said this wasn't true either, and that her grandson never physically assaulted her. She was worried that his punishment for the charges against him might be too severe, though at least a spell in jail puts him beyond the reach of drug dealers to whom he owes money, she said. ``They offered him a deal - 35 years,'' she said. ``But I think that's terrible.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake