A crew with Pompano Beach-based Shenandoah Construction was working in the area of Belle Terre Boulevard and Kaywood Place in Palm Coast Wednesday morning when they had to briefly halt northbound traffic to allow a truck to back up.
Miguel Angel Rodriguez, a 43-year-old resident of Universal Trail in Seminole Woods was not happy. His truck and trailer–he was pulling a mower–stopped in the northbound lane, he allegedly started to yell at the crew and saying signs should’ve been posted. (They were, according to the crew.) Soon traffic was allowed o pass again.
Rodriguez, however, parked his truck and stepped out with a machette in his hand, according to his arrest report. He allegedly held it “in the upward position” as he walked toward the crew, saying something to the effect of “I’m going to chop some bitches up.” One of the people at the scene told Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies he became so fearful that he retreated toward the woods to avoid a confrontation. Two witnesses at the scene described the incident in similar terms. One of them elected to press charges.
Within the half hour, sheriff’s deputies on Zerington Court located a Ford truck and trailer matching the description given at the incident scene, as did that of the man driving the truck. Body cam footage issued by the Sheriff’s Office shows Rodriguez speaking to someone by phone, spelling out the accusation (“They said it was an altercation this morning or whatever, and some guy called the cop said I put a machete out on him”), and asking for the person at the other end to come over.
When a deputy tells Rodriguez that he was interfering with the investigation, Rodriguez said he was pleading the Fifth, as in invoking his right not to speak or self-incriminate himself–which he has the right to do, though he does not have the right to ignore or flout a law enforcement officer’s requests or commands. As Rodriguez stayed on the phone, walking away from the deputy, the deputy took hold of Rodriguez’s arms and put him in handcuffs.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. This is embarrassing, right in front of my customer,” Rodriguez says.
“Man, we’re giving you instructions not to move around, and you’re doing it anyway,” the deputy tells him.
Rodriguez denied being involved in an argument conceded to having multiple machetes in his truck. One of them was sheathed on the dashboard, “in plain sight and clearly visible through the dashboard,” according to the Sheriff’s Office. He then said he’d been stopped by “some guys” and was upset at the lack of road signs. When one of the crew members allegedly hurled an insult at him, he got upset and got out of his truck, but without anything in his hands. He also spoke of getting into an argument with the driver of a truck who’d initially been in front of him.
The two men in the work crew that Rodriguez allegedly assailed were brought to Zerington Court and identified him. Deputies seized the machetes and arrested Rodriguez on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a third-degree felony. His wife took possession of the truck as Rodriguez was taken to the county jail. On the way, a sheriff’s deputy reported that Rodriguez banged his head several times against the rear passenger door and the vehicle partition between the deputy and the rear compartment, “causing a medium-sized knot to develop on his forehead.” The knot is visible in Rodriguez’s mugshot at the jail. His forehead is clear at the time of his arrest.
Rodriguez, who is facing a separate civil action over an unpaid credit card debt of over $10,000, posted bail on $5,000 bond and was released.
“This man threatened several workers with a machete because he was inconvenienced,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “This guy became unhinged when he got out and confronted the workers just doing their jobs. If he had waited patiently, he would not have visited the Green Roof Inn,” the sheriff’s moniker for the county jail. “Take a deep and be patient. That’s better than getting arrested because you couldn’t control your anger.”
