Man Tries To Eye-Gouge Cop At Essex County DMV, Police Say

If he’d only kept his temper in check, an Essex County man might be spending his Monday morning on line at the DMV instead of county jail.

According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Israel Villegas-Suarez, 33, of Newark, was waiting to be served at the East Orange Department of Motor Vehicles branch around 1 p.m. on Saturday when the office announced that it was closing.

It was allegedly more than Villegas-Suarez could take, and he soon became “irate” and began vandalizing the facility, police stated.

Two Essex County Sheriff’s Officers on the scene attempted to reason with Villegas-Suarez and calm him down, advising him to come back to the DMV when it reopened on Monday.

“Villegas-Suarez would apparently have none of it,” Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said. “He pushed the officers away and assumed a combative fighting stance.”

As the officers struggled with the Newark resident, he “continuously beat his fist against them” and attempted to gouge out one of the officer’s eyes, police stated.

Eventually - with the assistance of five East Orange police officers – Villegas-Suarez was subdued, placed under arrest and transported to University Hospital for an evaluation of his physical and mental condition.

On his release from the hospital, police charged Villegas-Suarez with two counts of aggravated assault on police officers, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

As of Monday morning, he remained incarcerated at Essex County Jail on a bail of $50,000.

File photo: Patrons wait on line inside a California DMV office.