Federal prosecutors say a man accused of blowing a red light in Waterford Township, slamming into a motorcycle and vanishing from the scene is now in custody and facing an immigration charge tied to his return to the United States.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, 33-year-old Jose Manuel Cazarez-Pulido has been charged in federal court with unlawfully re-entering the country. Prosecutors say he appeared this week in federal court in Detroit after U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested him last Wednesday, following a request for assistance from Waterford police. He is being held pending a detention hearing.
Crash And Police Findings
Police reports state that Cazarez-Pulido was driving a Chrysler Town & Country minivan when he allegedly ran a red light at North Hospital Road and Pontiac Lake Road and struck a motorcycle carrying a 71-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man. Both riders were left in critical condition after the collision. Officers later reported finding an open Budweiser bottle on the passenger-side floorboard and issued citations for leaving the scene of a personal injury crash, disobeying a red traffic signal and having open alcohol in a motor vehicle, as reported by FOX 2 Detroit.
Federal Case And What Comes Next
The federal complaint is part of Operation Take Back America, a broader enforcement effort detailed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. In announcing the case, U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said, Illegal aliens continue to break American laws and threaten American lives. The only sure way to prevent these crimes is to keep them out of our country. The office emphasized that a complaint is only a charge and not evidence of guilt, and that defendants are presumed innocent while the case moves through the courts.
Waterford police and federal prosecutors say their investigation is ongoing. Officials have not released any updates on the victims’ conditions or detailed the timing of upcoming court hearings.
