VALPARAISO | A Portage man, who is on trial this week on charges of burglarizing a nearby home a year ago and causing an eight-hour standoff with police, now is accused of calling the victim twice from jail on New Year's Eve and discouraging her from testifying against him.

Thaddeus Rodriguez's telephone conversations were caught on tape, and Deputy Prosecutor Trista Hudson won the right to introduce the recordings as evidence during the trial that began Wednesday morning before Porter Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper.

Hudson said Rodriguez was recorded asking the victim to ignore the subpoena requiring her to show up for his trial, claim she did not remember anything or say she had given him permission to take the stereo in question.

Defense attorney Dolores Aylesworth responded to news of the tapes by asking for either a continuance or a mistrial, both of which were denied by Harper.

Aylesworth argued there were some comments made about her on the tapes and if introduced as evidence, they would prejudice her client. There also may be a need to add more witnesses as a result of the tapes and verify the accuracy of the recordings.

Use of the tapes could also result in a reversal of a conviction and a costly retrial, she said.

"There's some explosive stuff in these tapes," Aylesworth said.

Harper said the tapes are admissible and told Hudson and Aylesworth to meet over lunch to try to come to an agreement on how that would be handled.

"It is a situation the defendant has initiated," Harper said.

She ordered both not to make any reference to the tapes during the trial until the details were worked out.

Rodriguez is charged with felony burglary and a misdemeanor count of resisting law enforcement.

Hudson told jurors the 37-year-old broke into a house in the 3200 block of Ashland Avenue in Portage on Jan. 28 and stole a stereo. Police said they followed footprints in the snow back to Rodriguez's house in the 5000 block of Boulder Avenue.

Rodriguez was apprehended when he crawled into the attic and fell through the ceiling in the adjoining duplex unit after an eight-hour standoff with SWAT officers, Hudson said. Rodriguez was found hiding under a bed.

Aylesworth said prosecutors would not be able to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.