Men’s Night Out: Crime Week

You should see the other guy. This week we have incidents involving Boca Winds, Mission Bay, Saddlebrook, Sandalfoot Cove, Watergate Estates, homemade fuel tanks at a Wawa, and tools stolen from the West Boca Lowe’s. Plus some drunk driving incidents including a very wealthy old man driving a very expensive car.

Willie Allen (35, East Boca) was arrested for threatening a gas station attendant with an “AK-style” rifle. The rifle in question later turned out to be a BB-gun, but nevertheless Allen is charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Allen has multiple prior felonies and a history with FDLE, including 3 stints in state prison.

Allen may have a pretty good defense that a BB gun is not a deadly weapon. We’re not sure how Florida courts would rule on that.

This is one we haven’t seen before. Yanzie Figueedo (32) of Sandalfoot Cove was arrested at a Lake Worth Wawa for illegally transporting fuel. He was driving a pickup and filled extra tanks with diesel fuel. The extra tanks were “homemade/unapproved”. And this is a felony?

The affidavit doesn’t specify what exactly was wrong with the extra tanks. It’s also odd that the Wawa clerk called PBSO because Figueedo allegedly had been committing some kind of fraud because there had been some failed transactions in the past.

Figueedo may have a couple good defenses. He was not yet transporting the fuel when arrested (he hadn’t left the Wawa) and proving the tanks were improper could be a challenge for the prosecution.

We see no prior history for Figueedo.

Alireza Raeissi (47) was arrested for domestic battery after his girlfriend and baby-mama accused him of punching her in the stomach, throwing her to the floor and punching her some more. The deputy noted multiple minor injuries.

Raeissi’s reported address is in the Regatta subdivision of Mission Bay. We see no priors for him.

30-year-old Derek Smith is accused of stealing 3 Dewalt combo kits from the West Boca Lowe’s. Confronted by store staff as he was leaving, Smith ran off leaving the $800 of merchandise behind. Incidentally we’ve noticed that Dewalt items are a popular thing for thieves to steal.

Smith was later identified in a photo lineup by store staff. He has quite a history with FDLE.

The incident happened in 2017, but he wasn’t arrested on this until recently because he just got out of prison from a Broward felony. Smith’s reported address is in Palmetto Pines just south of Palmetto Park Road.

Nicolas Didio (28) resides in the Waters Edge Enclave section of Boca Winds. He was arrested for burglary of an occupied residence in Lake Worth. During the arrest deputies found crack cocaine in his possession, adding that count to his case.

Court records show multiple prior felonies for Didio, but we see no FDLE record. Didio is a West Boca High grad.

It’s not clear why Didio was in the home. The occupants are a Spanish-speaking family and could not understand what Didio was saying in English.

37-year-old Damion Achat of East Boca was arrested for felony domestic battery by strangulation. His estranged wife said he grabbed her by the throat and police observe bruising consistent with her claim. We see no priors for Achat.

Boca PD arrived at the scene of a flaming wreck on Federal Highway, the result of a 3-vehicle crash. Nathaniel Burstin of East Boca is accused of causing the crash by rear-ending another vehicle at a high rate of speed.

A lot of the investigation seems dubious as the claimed symptoms of intoxication could easily be explained as the result of an obvious head injury. Burstin agreed to a breath test and registered 0.09 twice, but there was middle sample that was 0.07, ruled out because it allegedly did not have enough breath volume. A good DUI defense lawyer would have a field day with those numbers.

81-year-old Alan Joseph Kaufman of the Royal Palm Yacht club in East Boca was arrested for DUI in his Bentley. The Chicago native lives in a 4700 square foot house in the Royal Palm Yacht Club appraised at over $3 million and probably worth over $5 million.

We don’t see much history for Kaufman other than a 2015 ticket for an expired tag on his other Bentley. Usually with someone this wealthy we can figure out how they made their money but there are quite a few Alan Kaufmans in Florida so we’ve got nothing.

Finally John Graci (33) of the Watergate Estates trailer park was arrested on a warrant from Broward County. He’s had a few cases in Broward. This arrest appears to be from a 2015 incident where he allegedly broke into a woman’s car (armed burglary), stole an AR-15 rifle from her trunk, and hid the rifle behind his then home in Tamarac. The police report indicates that Graci has a prior felony conviction from 2007 (another car burglary), making that another felony for felon in possession of a firearm.

It’s not clear why the case has been sitting for so long in the Broward courts, other than just ongoing delays. And of course Graci has been living free for most of that time despite these fairly serious accusations. He’s now on house arrest with electronic monitoring.