The former cop accused of setting off a pipe bomb in a Midtown subway station tripped himself up by telling probers different versions of his “heroics,” newly released court papers show.
“I found a bag that exploded. The force of the explosion threw me down the stairs,” former Officer Joseph Rodriguez said in newly unsealed statements to police.
But then he gave varying accounts of the bomb’s location and his own, according to the papers.
First, he said he found the bag containing the bomb as he entered the subway at Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street after making a phone call, but later claimed he saw the bag as he walked up to the street so he could make the call.
Rodriguez, 28, told probers the bag was an ordinary black plastic bag capable of holding a six-pack, and that it felt light when he nudged it with his foot.
Then he gave another account, saying that smoke was rising from the bag when he first saw it, and it burst into flames.
He said he was closing the stairwell gate when the flaming bag exploded, contradicting an earlier claim it blew up as he made his call.
The filing was released yesterday after Rodriguez – who’d tried to convince investigators that he stopped bystanders from being injured in the July 19 explosion – was found mentally fit to stand trial on arson charges.
Prosecutor Lanita Hobbs said that despite Rodriguez’s contention that he never touched the bag the bomb was in, two of his fingerprints were found on it.
She also said surveillance tapes showed him in the stairwell before the explosion, and that a computer seized from his Little Italy apartment indicated he had perused Web sites that offer tips on bomb-making.
Rodriguez’s lawyer, Edgar DeLeon, said the explosion caused no serious injuries or damage. He said his client voluntarily checked in to a psychiatric center even as cops made him the prime suspect.
The judge ordered Rodriguez, wearing a neck brace and sunglasses because of injuries he claims he suffered in the blast, held in lieu of $200,000 bail.