After being held in jail for over a year while awaiting trial, a man accused of raping a woman at knifepoint in Twentynine Palms was released last Friday when his case was dismissed. According to court records, Lynel Roduk, 30, was in Joshua Tree Superior Court Friday morning for a trial readiness hearing when Deputy District Attorney Lisa Muscari asked Judge Rodney Cortez to dismiss the case pursuant to Penal Code 1385. Cases are dismissed under PC 1385 due to a lack of evidence or in the interest of justice. It is not clear why Roduk’s case was dismissed. On August 16, 2014, Sheriff’s officials say that Lynel Roduk, then 29, approached a woman who was standing outside a friend’s home in the 7000 block of Estrella Avenue, threatened her with a knife and forced her to walk about a block away where he then attempted to rape her at knifepoint. The woman’s friends came looking for her and she managed to escape, at which time Roduk fled. After deputies obtained an arrest warrant for him, Roduk turned himself in to police in Palmdale in September 2014. Roduk has been held at West Valley Detention Center for the last 15 months until his release Friday.
