A Michigan man has been accused of endangering the lives of police officers who woke him up from his sleeping spot on the side of a major interstate to check on him.
According to an arrest warrant, Jonathon Pego, 35, was asleep next to southbound Interstate 95 near Northlake Boulevard in Florida on Monday around 12:35 a.m. when Palm Beach Gardens police officers arrived. The man was on the freeway’s western shoulder.
He was “unconscious, breathing, and disheveled in appearance,” according to the court document. Pego, later identified by a Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan card, “was obviously highly impaired and unaware he was on the side of a freeway,” police said.
Pego is said to have identified himself using his name and birthday, but when a responding officer requested more information, the Michigan man “became increasingly hostile.”
“F- you,” Pego allegedly said to the officer when he offered his assistance. This prompted the officer to draw his taser and point it at Pego, who is said to have become “increasingly hostile,” ignored orders to stand up, and “told this officer in a threatening manner not to touch him.”
Officers restrained and arrested Pego just five minutes after he arrived.
Officers discovered an identification card in Pego’s pocket while driving back to the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department. At this point, the man is said to have made a series of threats.
“No one is going to miss you where you’re going,” the arrest warrant quotes Pego as saying. He allegedly “made mentions about having friends who would do harm to this officer and this officer’s family” or “made threats against this officer’s life.”
Pego was charged with corruption by threatening a public servant or their family, resisting an officer violently, and resisting an officer peacefully. He was jailed and given a $1,000 bond.
