AUBURN, Mass. (WHDH) – A man was arrested for the second time on Thursday after police said he crashed into a family’s car while drunk and his wife said she is angry the focus is on his immigration status.
Police said Jose Acevedo, 43, was drunk when he rear-ended the family’s SUV on Thursday in Auburn. The crash was reported just before 5 p.m. and on the same day, police in Worcester said they arrested Acevedo for an outstanding warrant. Worcester Police said that warrant dates back to a January case where he was cited for driving with a revoked registration and an uninsured car.
“He didn’t mean to. What happened was the light went from yellow to green. He thought from yellow to red. My husband thought that the guy was going to keep going. So he was under the influence of alcohol,” said Jessica Amaya, Acevedo’s wife.
Amaya said her husband is undocumented and is from El Salvador. She said he has been living in Massachusetts for 17 years.
“He’s been here 17 years, and he’s not a harm to anybody. He works seven days a week and he made one little mistake,” said Amaya.
Police said Acevedo blew three times the legal limit on the breathalyzer after crashing on Route 20. Acevedo was allegedly so drunk that he had trouble standing up.
“When the individual was being spoken to by the officers, he fell back and onto the emergency ambulance that was on the scene,” said Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis.
Police said the woman in the car suffered a fractured vertebrae in her lower neck that will take weeks to recover from. Her husband reported back and neck pain and their two children were not injured.
7News reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to find out whether or not a detainer was issued for Acevedo. ICE said they tried to interview Acevedo on Friday and were unable to because a court supervisor said he had not been appointed an attorney yet.
“While Mr. Acevedo has allegedly admitted to local law enforcement that he is in the U.S. unlawfully, ICE cannot verify the accuracy of his alleged statements until our officers interview him and compare his biographical data against federal immigration records,” said a spokesperson for ICE.
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