HAMMOND | A 27-year-old East Chicago man is charged with crossing state lines to engage in sex with an 11-year-old girl.
Edwin Tollinchi-Rodriguez was charged in U.S. District Court in Hammond Thursday with aggravated sexual abuse of a child younger than 12. The charges are a result of an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the East Chicago Police Department and the Lansing, Ill., Police Department.
On Nov. 3, the victim called East Chicago police to report she had been molested by Tollinchi-Rodriguez. She said he had asked her to accompany him to the hospital because his stomach was hurting and he needed someone to help him translate his words into English with the hospital staff, according to the court’s charging affidavit.
Instead, he allegedly took the girl to a motel in Lansing where he allegedly performed a sex act on her while fondling himself. Video surveillance places Tollinchi-Rodriguez and the victim at the motel around the time of the alleged incident, according to the affidavit.
Later that day, the girl’s mother took her daughter to St. Catherine Hospital, where a rape test was performed, the affidavit stated. The victim reportedly told an FBI child forensic investigator on Nov. 4 that the sexual abuse had been going on for about four years and that Tollinchi-Rodriguez had threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone about what had been going on.
The girl said the abuse began when she was 8 years old and usually occurred in her home while her mother was at work. She said Tollinchi-Rodriguez would sometimes punch her if she did not cooperate while he abused her.
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