PLANTATION, Fla. — A 29-year-old man appeared in court on Tuesday in Broward County to face charges after his attempted escape from Florida Highway Patrol troopers’ immigration law enforcement prompted a multi-agency pursuit, records show.
Jonathan Hernandez, who was arrested on Monday, required a Spanish interpreter when he appeared before Broward County Circuit Judge David A. Haimes. He faced charges of aggravated battery on law enforcement, resisting arrest with violence, and attempting to escape.
“He is from here, he has friends that live here, he works in South Florida,” Broward County Assistant Public Defender Andrew Coviello, who was representing Hernandez during the hearing, told Haimes in court.
A trooper, who was injured during his escape, was treated at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital and needed nine stitches, according to FHP. Troopers, police officers with the Plantation and Davie police departments, and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were involved in the search until a police dog found him in Plantation.
“I do find probable cause for your arrest,” Haimes told Hernandez during the bond court hearing. “You also have immigration holds, two of them, that are no bond.”
Hernandez was among the five passengers of a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck when a trooper ordered the driver traveling westbound on State Road 84 to stop near Southwest 136 Street on Monday morning, according to the FHP report.
“Through 287(g) authority,” a federal program authorizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to delegate functions, an FHP trooper asked the men for identification and got a hold of Hernandez’s Mexican passport showing he was born in Veracruz, according to the FHP report.
“The driver provided proper paperwork to the officer; however, the passengers did not have the required documentation. Two backup officers arrived on scene to assist,” FHP Lt. Indiana Miranda wrote in a statement to Local 10 News on Monday.
After learning Hernandez lived in Martin County’s Stuart and “was having immigration issues,” a trooper ordered him to get out of the pickup truck, handcuffed his left wrist, and was going to handcuff the other when he “aggressively turned around,” according to the FHP report.
When Hernandez turned, “the single strand rivet of the right handcuff” caused a cut on the trooper’s right hand, and the blood caused him “to lose grip” of Hernandez, who then ran away, according to the FHP report.
Hernandez climbed a divider between SR-84 and the New River, ran toward the river, jumped in the water, and started swimming northbound to the other side of the river, and ran into a residential neighborhood in Plantation, according to FHP.
After his arrest, police officers took Hernandez to the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale. Haimes granted the prosecution’s request for pre-trial detention for the charge of aggravated battery on law enforcement. Haimes set his bond for the charge of resisting arrest with violence at $2,500 and for attempting to escape at $5,000.
“Border Patrol was contacted to assist with the identification of the remaining passengers,” Miranda, of FHP, wrote in a statement.
Local 10 News Assignment Editors Carson Merlo and Joyce Grace Ortega contributed to this report.
Watch the 6:30 a.m. report
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