Sexual Horse Abuse Charge Will Not Be Filed

The Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office has declined to  file charges against a man arrested earlier this week on suspicion of abusing  a horse last month in Felton.
     
The case against Robert Clyde Rodriguez, 41, was denied pending  further investigation, according to the district attorney's office.
     
Rodriguez was arrested on an animal cruelty charge Tuesday near  the Covered Bridge Pasture in Felton, according to the sheriff's office.
     
The arrest was made in the same area where on May 17 a woman  reported to Animal Services that her horse had been tied to a tree and  sexually assaulted by Rodriguez. She claimed she saw him walking away from  the horse naked from the waist down, according to the sheriff's office.
   
The horse suffered abrasions from being tied to a tree with a  coarse rope, the sheriff's office said.
     
Rodriguez was not arrested on sexual abuse charges because the  investigation into those claims was inconclusive, according to the sheriff's  office.