Hunter
02/22/21
An area transient who was wanted on criminal mischief charges was arrested Sunday after an alleged domestic incident.
Police were called to the Robert A. Lee Rec Center at 8:10am on reports of a man choking a woman. The person who called in the report alleged that the man pushed a female to the ground on the stairs of the building’s west entrance and then placed his arm around her neck for approximately 15 seconds.
The caller then got involved in the incident and pulled the man, later identified as 28-year-old Jose Rodriguez, off the woman. Arriving officers observed scratches to the woman’s neck. Rodriguez allegedly admitted to choking the woman, but claimed she started the fight by pushing him.
The woman has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Rodriquez for about a year.
Rodriguez was wanted for failing to appear on criminal mischief charges from December, when he was accused of breaking a victim’s cellphone by throwing it to the ground.
Rodriguez faces 5th degree criminal mischief charges from December, and domestic abuse assault impeding airflow causing injury for Sunday’s incident. If convicted on both counts, he could be sentenced to over five years in prison.