The Manhattan landlord of two tenants who vanished without a trace 14 months ago was arrested on unrelated charges that finally let cops search buildings he owns in Manhattan and upstate, sources said.
Robert Rodriguez, 57, was taken into custody at his home in Hampton, in upstate Orange County, around 4 p.m. yesterday on state and federal charges stemming from his alleged hijacking of the identity of a dead man, the sources told The Post.
He also was charged with tax violations, the sources said.
Although the charges had nothing to do with the Nov. 7, 1997, disappearance of tenants Camden Sylvia, then 37, and boyfriend Michael Sullivan, then 50, they gave cops the chance to search the basement at 76 Pearl St. – the building where the two lived on the top floor – as well as Rodriguez’s upstate home, the sources said.
Cops have never been allowed into the basement at Rodriguez’s Pearl Street building, the sources said.
“It’s surprising to me,” said Rodriguez’ lawyer, Joseph Marro. “I don’t know where [the police] get this stuff.”
But Laurie Sylvia, Camden’s mother, who lives in Cape Cod, Mass., said the new development in the troubling case gave her “a little bit of hope …”
“Every day I wake up and think maybe this will be the day something happens,” she said. “But the jury is out on whether this will be it.
“I haven’t lost confidence,” she added. “I have the support of two grandchildren and good friends. I have my down moments, but I do have faith that somehow, justice prevails. Even if a person walks free, that person still has to look at themselves in the mirror.”
While the arrest was underway upstate, two dozen cops – armed with shotguns and sledge hammers – stormed the Pearl Street building, charging into Rodriguez’s ground-floor business, Royalson Locksmith. It was not clear what, if anything, the search turned up.
According to the sources, the charges against Rodriguez stem from his alleged hijacking of the identity of Alan Rodriguez, who died of AIDS. He is not related to Robert Rodriguez.
He’s allegedly been maintaining the dead man’s identity and has obtained a phony identification, the sources said.
Authorities did not say what they believe his motive was.
Camden Sylvia, a real-estate agent, and Sullivan, an actor, haven’t been seen since the day they threatened to withhold their $300-a-month rent unless the heat was turned up.
Rodriguez, a 57-year-old Cuban emigree, has been questioned by police since the disappearance, but was never named a suspect and has never been charged in the case.
He also has links to another long-missing person, that of former co-worker David King, who disappeared in 1991. He has not been charged in that case either.
Rodriguez is also under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which last year subpoenaed financial records from his son and employees at the locksmith shop.
He was charged yesterday with scheming to defraud, grand larceny, forgery, impersonation and failure to pay taxes.