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.''