A disagreement over a few loose pet snakes allegedly turned violent in Boynton Beach, leaving a man with a bloody face and swelling around his eye, and leading to the arrest of a 37-year-old woman on charges of aggravated battery and criminal mischief. Police say the man had known his alleged attacker for about three years before the confrontation escalated into what he described as a blow from an object that felt like a brick.
Police responded to a home on Southeast 13th Avenue in Boynton Beach after a report of a delayed assault, according to CBS12. When officers arrived, they found the man bloodied and swollen around one eye. He told them the argument started because Maria Louise Del Rosario's pet snakes kept getting loose.
The man said he tried to put distance between himself and Del Rosario, even stepping outside to look the other way, but she kept approaching him despite his efforts to avoid her. He told police she then allegedly struck him with an unknown object that felt like a brick, a blow he said caused significant pain. He told officers he remembered little of what happened immediately afterward beyond trying to get away from her.
Surveillance Footage Allegedly Shows the Confrontation
According to the report, surveillance video from a nearby home allegedly showed Del Rosario walking toward the man and showed him later lying on the floor near his driveway next to a phone with a smashed, bent screen. The man said he believed Del Rosario had taken his cellphone, since he could not find it afterward. The footage allegedly showed her stomping on the phone three times.
Investigators say Del Rosario initially denied seeing the man that day. Per the affidavit described in the report, she later acknowledged being at his home around 3 p.m. and, after being shown the surveillance footage, admitted to stomping on the phone. She reportedly told officers at one point, “Just put me in the car.”
Arrest and Charges
Officers later located Del Rosario at a home on Southeast 23rd Avenue, where she was detained for questioning. She was arrested on charges of aggravated battery causing bodily harm and criminal mischief, per the probable-cause affidavit cited in the report.
Under Florida law, aggravated battery covers conduct that intentionally or knowingly causes great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement, or involves the use of a deadly weapon, and is classified as a second-degree felony. Separately, Florida statute defines criminal mischief as willfully and maliciously injuring or damaging another person's property, with penalties scaled to the amount of damage caused.
