Tampa’s viral ‘Lieutenant Dan,’ who refused to leave his boat for Hurricane Milton, has mile-long rap sheet

The one-legged mariner nicknamed “Lieutenant Dan,” who became a viral sensation for refusing to leave his boat in Tampa ahead of Hurricane Milton has a rap sheet a mile long — including arrests for slugging a cop and allegedly trying to set a woman on fire by dousing her with gasoline last year.

Joseph Malinowski, 54, so-nicknamed for his resemblance to the unflappable double-amputee shrimping boat first mate played by Gary Sinise in “Forrest Gump,” racked up dozens of arrests in North Carolina and Florida dating back to at least 2006, court records show.

It also appears he’s not even from the Tampa area. His most recent busts were out of South Florida.

Malinowski was featured on The Weather Channel, CNN and on a livestream with TikTokker “Tampa” Terrence Concannon, who has nearly 500,000 followers.

Concannon, 23, later set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Malinowski to buy a larger vessel, which as of this writing has raised over $40,000, calling him “the kindest soul” who is “always ready to lend a hand.” The page remains active as of Thursday afternoon.

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Many of the charges are traffic offenses or arrests for failure to appear in court, but he’s also been busted for everything from drug possession to attempted breaking and entering to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

He even has an open criminal case out of Tampa over whether the 22-foot Catalina sailboat in which he rode out the storm even belongs to him.

In May 2021, Malinowski was arrested for allegedly refusing a manager’s request to leave the Brogues Down Under bar in Lake Worth, Fla. after causing a disturbance by screaming and smashing glasses.

As a responding Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy was attempting to handcuff him, Malinowski became aggressive and punched him in the nose, according to an arrest report.

The deputy punched him back to subdue the rowdy skipper, who received a laceration on his face from broken glass on the floor of the bar.

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He was charged with battery against a law enforcement officer and pleaded not guilty, but served a year in jail after being convicted by a jury.

A more recent and disturbing incident came last February, when a woman reported she had gotten in argument with Malinowski, who had been sitting on a concrete bench at Lake Worth Beach around 20 feet away.

During the argument, Malinowski allegedly approached the woman and poured gasoline on the bench directly next to where she was sitting and set it alight.

The argument continued to escalate, and the woman — who was smoking a cigarette at the time — said Malinowski then splashed her with gas in an attempt to light her on fire.

She called 911, fearing for her life, and grabbed Malinowski’s crutches to prevent him from using them as weapons or escaping before help could arrive, records allege.

Malinowski uses crutches to help him get around after his left leg was amputated above the knee following a scooter accident nearly 40 years ago.

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He was arrested for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon but the case was dropped a month later for reasons that were not explained and could not be immediately determined.

His credentials as a responsible sailor are also shaky at best.

Last March, Malinowski was charged for abandoning a derelict 26-foot sailboat — called the Roan Inish — which was discovered “on its side and submerged against a sea wall” in Lantana in South Florida, according to court documents.

However, prosecutors later declined to pursue the case in court due to the terms of a plea deal.

As Hurricane Milton was bearing down on Florida, Malinowski became internet-famous for stubbornly refusing to evacuate his vessel, even under threat of arrest and dire warnings by Tampa Mayor Jane Castor .

At a press conference Wednesday, Castor claimed the nomadic skipper had finally been coaxed into taking shelter, but he was spotted on his sailboat docked in Tampa Bay a short time later.

“I know the Mayor of Tampa just said in her press conference that Lieutenant Dan went to a shelter. He didn’t, I’m standing right here,” NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin tweeted just before noon alongside a photo of Malinowski popping his head out of the canvas covering his sailboat’s cabin.

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