Lawyer: Jesus’ mom ‘sick about’ Giovanni

The Daily ItemLYNN – As soon as she heard about Giovanni Gonzalez’ disappearance, Magdalena Rodriguez asked Michael MacDonald to reach out to his police contacts with an urgent request.”She wanted to know if there was even a remote possibility of a connection,” said MacDonald, the local attorney who has counseled Rodriguez since September 1996 when the former Lynn woman’s 6-year-old son disappeared.MacDonald and Rodriguez have talked during the ensuing years about Jesus De La Cruz’ disappearance and he said her concern for Gonzalez is understandable.”She’s sick about it and can’t sleep,” he said.But he discounted the notion of a connection between the disappearances, noting the Gonzalez case is rooted in a “domestic” situation involving Giovanni’s father.Ernesto Gonzalez pleaded innocent Monday to a child endangerment charge in District Court one day after denying to police Daisy Colon’s claim that she dropped her son off with Gonzalez last Friday.Neighbors confirmed father and son were together at his Lynn apartment building Saturday and police said Gonzalez has not cooperated with them in finding Giovanni.Despite the 12 years separating the cases, Giovanni’s disappearance resurrects memories of police searching the city for De La Cruz and blanketing it with color flyers of the Connery School student wearing a red turtleneck.De La Cruz was last seen standing on the corner of North Common and Park streets with a man and the man’s small dog on Saturday, Sept. 28, 1996 at 6 p.m.Neighbors and other witnesses told police the man with De La Cruz was Robert C. Levesque, who was 26 at the time of De La Cruz’ disappearance and lived in the same neighborhood.Levesque called in sick from his job on the night De La Cruz vanished and was arrested after the search for the boy began. He was held on motor vehicle offenses but never charged in the De La Cruz case.Former Nahant police chief, now private detective, Joseph Manley, Jr. said the public should discard visions of “CSI”-style interrogations when it comes to police efforts to solicit information from Ernesto Gonzalez.”They have to play by the rules and it’s more and more common for people to lawyer up and don’t say anything.”