News and Investigations

A suspect in the country illegally from Venezuela was arrested by a Polk County Sheriff's deputy after a routine traffic stop for an expired tag in Wahneta.

Just after midnight during the early morning hours of Sunday, May 25, 2025, a deputy sheriff patrolling the area of Rifle Range Road near Eagle Lake Loop spotted a Pontiac G6 with a registration sticker on the tag that expired in June 2023. He conducted a traffic stop, and the driver of the Pontiac pulled over. The driver, 57-year-old Jose Adorno Pabon of Wahneta, advised that he did not speak English and that he did not have a driver's license.

As the deputy began his investigation, the passenger, 37-year-old Jhonnys Robles Pereira of Wahneta, got out of the car. The deputy gave Pereira several commands to stay inside the vehicle, which Pereira ignored, continuing to move towards the deputy. Pereira then ran straight at the deputy and struck him before fleeing on foot. Pabon immediately drove away at a high rate of speed, and the deputy ran after Pereira, repeatedly yelling at him to stop before catching up to him and deploying his Taser.

Pereira was taken into custody, and the deputy confirmed with ICE that he is in the country illegally from Venezuela. As such, his charges are upgraded. Meanwhile, backup units in the area located the fleeing Pontiac and performed another traffic stop, arresting Pabon (who is Puerto Rican) for DUI.

Robles Pereira is charged with one count battery on a law enforcement officer (F2), one count resisting arrest with violence (F2), and one count resisting arrest without violence (F3). An ICE hold was placed on him at the Polk County Jail.

Deputies who took Padron into custody noted that he had a valid driver's license, but he showed signs of impairment and was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. During a field sobriety test he displayed six out of eight clues of being impaired. He told deputies he fled because he had had "five beers" and that he hadn't yet registered his recently-purchased car or obtained insurance for it. He was charged with fleeing to elude (F3), resisting arrest (M1), DUI (M2), attaching unassigned tag (M2), operating a vehicle without registration (M2), and failure to maintain vehicle insurance (M2).

"They say there's no such thing as a routine traffic stop, and that nothing good happens after midnight. We're grateful that this traffic stop resulted in a drunk driver being taken off the road before killing someone, and that our deputy wasn't more seriously injured when the suspect who is here illegally slammed into him while fleeing." - Grady Judd, Sheriff