1A auditor turns fireworks show into 6 criminal charges

A 32-year-old man is charged with the aggravated assault of a Maricopa police officer and faces several other related charges after an angry Fourth of July confrontation.

A Maricopa Police Department document states officers were responding shortly after 9 p.m. to a traffic hazard at John Wayne Parkway and West Ferrell Road. Peter J. Rodriguez, who was watching the fireworks show at Copper Sky, video recorded and yelled at police officers when they arrived. He had nothing to do with the traffic hazard.

This is what members of the fringe anti-government sovereign citizen movement call a “First Amendment audit,” defined by the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Freedom Forum as “when people film public officials or employees to hold them accountable or ‘test’ their right to film in public spaces.”

First Amendment audits frequently end in arrest. Such was the case for Rodriguez.

Officers ordered Rodriguez to leave the scene several times and not interfere with their investigation. Officers also told Rodriguez to stay off the road, but he refused, the report states.

Additional units were called to the scene when Rodriguez refused to leave, but he continued to video record and yell at officers.

When one officer ordered Rodriguez to clear the scene, he allegedly told the officer, “F*ck you.”

The officer then “impact pushed” Rodriguez away.

Rodriguez allegedly approached the officer “as if he was going to fight him” and said, “Touch me the f*ck again motherf*cker,” throwing his phone to the ground.

Officers on the scene assisted the fellow officer with grabbing ahold of Rodriguez to handcuff him. Rodriguez, who resisted arrest, was taken to the ground and handcuffed, police said.

Officers then transported Rodriguez to the Maricopa Police Department after he refused to identify himself, another hallmark of the First Amendment auditor. Cops finally found his driver’s license in his pocket.

Rodriguez was treated for a laceration he sustained during the arrest.

Besides assault on the officer, Rodriguez faces charges of resisting arrest, refusal to identify himself, obstructing a thoroughfare, criminal nuisance and obstructing governmental operations.

Rodriguez was being held today on $2,500 secured bond in Pinal County Jail.

His preliminary hearing is set for noon Friday in Pinal County Superior Court.

He faces up to three years for the felony assault on an officer charge, and up to two more years on the additional charges.

This post 1A auditor turns fireworks show into 6 criminal charges appeared first on InMaricopa .