DUI Week – Christmas Crime Report

Half of our incidents this week involved drunk driving. We also have a fake Lyft kidnapping, a businessman extradited to NYC for sexual abuse, theft, burglary and more.

One of the most salacious is a married woman caught with a man – not her husband – both out drunk together in a McDonald’s parking lot.

Neighborhoods include Arborwood, St. Andrews Estates, Village of Boca Barwood, Watergate Estates, Paradise Palms, and a lot of East Boca.

An 11:30 pm accident in East Boca led to the arrest of Bryan Cutzal (21, East Boca) for DUI. Cutzal appears to be a recent immigrant from Guatemala and still a citizen of that country, and a car mechanic who has no drivers license. Cutzal refused breath testing. We see no priors for him.

This was an odd incident involving a Cuban family. Manuel Iglesias Perez (65, East Boca) was arrested for burglary and battery on a senior. His older sister (the victim) had stopped to pick up her grandson from the school bus when Manuel and his brother stopped in front of her car. Manuel started hitting her and the brother Jose started hitting the grandson (age 17).

The report does not indicate what motivated the attack. Manuel was charged with two felonies as a result of the incident. We’re not sure if Jose has been arrested yet.

We see no priors for Manuel.

Kristian Patton (29, Watergate Estates) was arrested for battery after allegedly punching her boyfriend in the face multiple times for no reason stated in the report. They had just ridden their bicycles home from drinking at Duffy’s in Mission Bay.

The charges were later dropped. She has an extensive court history and previously appeared in a June crime report.

Juan Hermenegildo (50, East Boca) was arrested for leaving the scene of a serious injury crash near Yamato and Congress. The usual documents do not appear in the court system file so we do not have details yet. We reached out to Boca PD but may not get a response before we publish this article.

Hermenegildo has a prior case involving domestic violence and another involving retail theft. Born in Guatemala, he lived in Jupiter in 2017 and was working in lawn service at the time. As of 2017 he was still a citizen of Guatemala.

Colombia-born US citizen Miguel Monsalve (65, Palmetto Pines) was arrested for DUI in Watergate Estates.

Deputies were called by a resident of a trailer in Watergate Estates, who said an unknown man was sleeping in his car in their driveway. This is an interesting set of facts. He was sleeping in his vehicle with the engine off. Does that constitute driving? This seems like a close call though our hunch is he would lose on that issue.

In an odd twist of fate, the property is owned by a couple including Nellie Eastep, who appeared in a recent crime report herself for cocaine possession. The paperwork does not indicate if she was the person who called PBSO.

Lynn University student Michael Whitehead (18) was arrested after a large quantity of marijuana was found in his room. He was not charged with a marijuana offense yet, but initially for possession of four Adderall pills. He told police he got the marijuana from a family member from his home area in New Jersey, and that he has a prescription for the Adderall.

It looks like further charges might be filed for the marijuana later.

We see no priors for Whitehead.

Jeffrey Innocent might not be innocent. The 29-year-old Haitian citizen has an extensive history.

The East Boca resident was arrested for one incident on Boca Rio Road and another in Lake Worth. On Boca Rio he burglarized a car, stealing a woman’s pocketbook from inside while she was unloading groceries. He left fingerprints on the car door.

In Lake Worth police identified a stolen car, followed it until it stopped at a laundromat. Mr. Innocent got out of the vehicle, was held at gunpoint by an officer, and then ran in an attempt to escape. Deputies gave chase and were able to stop him.

He faces multiple felonies and a possible return to state prison, perhaps along with a Baker Act proceeding mentioned in the Lake Worth arrest paperwork.

French citizen Aurelie Lopez (28, East Boca) was stopped for speeding on Glades Road near Dixie Highway, allegedly going 77 in a 45 mph zone. She was arrested for DUI and registered roughly 0.13 on the breath test machine at Boca PD.

We see no priors for her.

New Yorker Dennis Novick (68, East Boca) was arrested on a warrant from the Manhattan DA’s office for “Sex Assault – Carnal Abuse – Sexual Abuse”.

Novick had some degree of business fame in the early 2000s when his company TCC Teleplex rolled out outdoor internet pay phones. You can read more about his company and his role in it here: TCC Teleplex.

Novick was previously arrested in 2018 here in Palm Beach County for trespassing and cocaine possession. He and his company also face a pending mortgage foreclosure on a condo in Admiral’s Walk right at the Highland Beach line.

We don’t have any details yet on the NYC sexual abuse case but we have reached out to journalists there and will update the story if we find out more.

Village of Boca Barwood resident Emmanuel Okwor (27, citizen of Nigeria) was arrested on a warrant from Broward County for violating an order of protection by e-mailing the victim.

This appears to relate back to a 2018 business dispute that led to his pending felony charge for written threats to kill. Okwor lived in Lauderdale Lakes at that time.

We don’t see any prior cases for Okwor.

Arborwood’s Jay Rao (40) was arrested for DUI after he rear-ended another car at the Mobil station on Palmetto at Beracasa Way. He told the deputies he had 4 beers at Duffy’s and also had taken a medication.

It’s not clear why but Rao had blood drawn and there’s no indication of a breath test. We’re not even sure where the blood draw was done, but the nurse who drew the blood appears to work for Tenet, which runs both West Boca Medical Center and Delray Medical Center.

63-year-old Dennis Mandeville (Paradise Palms, born in Connecticut) was arrested for DUI in Lake Worth. It appears the traffic stop was based on an anonymous tip so that could be an issue.

Mandeville refused a breath test. Court records show a prior DUI arrest in 2002 that was dropped.

This one is a particularly wacky story. 72-year-old James Mazzaro lives in his townhome in Fairfield Gardens (behind the Boca Marriott). He was arrested for kidnapping.

The 36-year-old female victim came out of Denny’s restaurant on Palmetto Park Road and was waiting for a Lyft to take her to the Artful Dodger club in East Boca. Mazzaro drove up in a new SUV and told her he was her ride. She did not verify this with the app.

For those who don’t know how this works, Lyft shows the type, color and license plate of the car, as well as the name and picture of the driver. She apparently checked none of that and just got in the car. Lyft records do show that she had requested a ride. When the driver showed up she was not there.

Mazzaro told her to sit in the front because it was a new car.

Pro tip: Situational awareness is important. If you’re going to use Uber or Lyft, pay attention to the details. Checking the plate in Florida is a pain because it’s at the rear of the car but you can at least check the type and color of the car and the driver’s name and face. When the driver tells you to sit up front, that’s another warning sign.

Once they started driving the victim noticed that the car doors were locked and Mazzaro began touching her arm and face. He then pulled into a parking lot and told her he wanted to get to know her better. Eventually he let her out at Mizner Park where witnesses heard her screaming. One of the witnesses got the license plate and police used that to track Mazzaro down.

There’s some indication that Mazzaro had been drinking but we do not see any charge for DUI. We see no priors in Palm Beach but we found a 2009 felony case for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, which suggests he has at least one prior felony conviction somewhere else. Of course his 2009 case was in Broward so he only got probation.

Court records we have do not indicate his place of birth but he is a US citizen. He appears to own an apartment building in Coral Springs through his corporation, Sunny Properties LLC.

30-year-old Eduardo Ayala Diaz of Watergate Estates was arrested for DUI after a post-midnight crash on I-95 south of Atlantic in Delray. He registered over 0.15 on breath testing. We see no priors for him.