FARGO - Audio tapes of police interviews with Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. will not be made public because they may jeopardize his right to a fair trial, a federal judge says.

Rodriguez, 53, a convicted sex offender from Crookston, Minn., is charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin. He has pleaded not guilty.

In testimony earlier this week, prosecutors played tapes of three separate police interviews with Rodriguez before he was arrested in 2003.

The Forum Communications Co. of Fargo asked U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson to release the audio tapes. Erickson rejected that request Friday, saying the tapes could become a factor in an appeal if Rodriguez is found guilty.

"These audio tapes relate to the validity of (the) defendant's alibi, and captures his own voice as he explains where he was during the time frame of Ms. Sjodin's disappearance," Erickson wrote. "If there were to be a second trial as a result of an appeal, having this sort of tape played in the media could create prejudice for a second trial."

The judge said he's also worried the tapes may open up jurors to opinions about the case.

"While it is a remote possibiltiy, it is still possible that members of the public may try to influence jurors based on their impressions of those taped interviews as they are broadcast in the media," Erickson said.

Erickson also denied a renewed motion by defense attorneys to dismiss the case on grounds the jury selection process discriminated against Hispanic Americans. Of the 16 people on the jury, all are Caucasian except for one woman, an Alaska Inuit.

Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared from a Grand Forks shopping mall on Nov. 22, 2003. Her body was found the following April in a ravine near Rodriguez's boyhood home.

Rodriguez was brought in for questioning four days after Sjodin turned up missing. The first interview took place about 1:30 p.m., at a construction site where Rodriguez was working. The last two interrogations were held that evening in Crookston.

During the first interview, Rodriguez told police he was in Grand Forks on the day Sjodin disappeared, leaving about 12:30 p.m. and returning to Crookston about 8:30 p.m. He said he went shopping in several stores near and in the mall, went to a movie and ate at McDonald's in East Grand Forks, Minn.

Special agents told Rodriguez in the third interview they believed he was involved in Sjodin's disappearance.

Rodriguez repeatedly denied any connection with Sjodin.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Dan Ahlquist told Rodriguez that his three prior convictions also raised suspicion. Rodriguez was convicted on two separate charges of aggravated rape in 1975, and was convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault in 1980.

Rodriguez was released in May 2003 after serving 23 years in prison.

"I don't mean to go back to your past, but something just came to my mind. Back then, you never admitted that you did anything to any of those people," Ahlquist said.

"Yeah I did," Rodriguez replied.

"Did you?" Ahlquist asked.

"Yeah … the last one I didn't admit to," Rodriguez said.

"OK," Ahlquist said.

"But, ah, the ones before I did," Rodriguez said.

"Eventually?" Ahlquist asked.

"No, I pleaded guilty," Rodriguez said.

"Right, but OK, but then at this last one you sat in prison all those years," the agent said.

"Yeah, I said, 'No, I didn't do it' and I still say I didn't do it, you know," Rodriguez said.