Dover councilman makes first court appearance after allegedly assaulting homeless man

More than three months after his arrest for allegedly assaulting a homeless man he claimed was drinking alcohol in public, Dover Councilman Sergio Rodriguez made his first court appearance to answer the charges on Thursday in Lincoln Park Municipal Court.

With the case transferred in the past week from Dover to Lincoln Park, Judge Andrew Wubbenhorst adjourned the matter until June 27 to give Prosecutor Kim Kassar time to review the case and obtain videos of the Feb. 7 incident in downtown Dover that generated headlines and heated controversy in the community.

Rodriguez, who was sworn into his first council term in January, quickly ignited controversy with a series of Instagram videos in which he narrated his downtown confrontations with men he accused of drinking alcohol or littering in public.

Police stepped in to investigate after a video post by Rodriguez on Feb. 7 showed an escalated confrontation with three men in which Rodriguez appeared to kick a clear bottle out of one man's hands. When they left the street bench they were sitting on, Rodriguez followed them into the street.

Two days later, the Ward 2 Democrat was arrested and charged with single counts of simple assault and harassment, both disorderly person offenses. If convicted, Rodriguez faces penalties of up to six months in jail and fines up to $1,000.

"I just got my fingerprints taken, mugshot taken and I was handcuffed to a bench," Rodriguez, 29, posted on Instagram on Feb. 10. That post and other posts addressing the incident have since been removed from his Instagram account.

Following the arrest, Dover Police Chief Jonathan Delaney stated that Rodriguez "became engaged in a verbal confrontation with the males" and later "assaulted one of the males by kicking the male's hand causing injury."

"Rodriguez continued to pursue the males while video recording after they attempted to leave the area and forced the males to cross the roadway," Delaney wrote. "Rodriguez attempted to block the males' avenue of escape, which caused a dangerous situation in the roadway."

"Stay here," Rodriguez says to one man in the video. "I'm not playing anymore. You guys know you shouldn't be there. No more apologies. I've told you many times already."

'There's a lot going on'

Thursday in court, the prosecutor asked for an adjournment to track down witnesses and evidence, and meet with Rodriguez's new attorney, Joseph Scura, after picking up the case on short notice.

"There's a lot going on," Kassar told the judge. "We have some of the discovery. What I'm trying to get are some of the flash drives with some of the footage that may have been produced by police or taken by the defendant himself."

Kassar added he needs to track down the three alleged victims, "Who are listed as homeless."

"We're moving ahead but we do need an opportunity to vet all these issues," Kassar said.

Wubbenhorst said if the two sides cannot complete a plea agreement by the June 27 appearance, he will schedule a special session for trial.

Rodriquez did not speak during the hearing except to reply "yes" when the judge asked if he could attend on June 27.

Deleted apology

The Instagram posts deleted by Rodriguez included an apology.

"I wholeheartedly agree with comments that are saying I should not have acted in such an aggressive and harassing way," the deleted post read. "It is not fit of the office I hold and is 100% not the image I want to make of our beautiful town. I sincerely and with all my heart apologize to the Dover community for the black eye I brought upon her. I never meant for any of this to happen."

But he later criticized police for their handling of the incident and failing to properly address the problem of homeless individuals drinking in public. That set off another controversy in town that spilled over to a council meeting in which Delaney spoke out against the councilman, earning him a reprimand from former town administrator BettyLou DecRoce, who has since been terminated.

Speaking directly to Delaney at a Feb. 13 council meeting, Rodriguez said, "I want the people around this town to respect our police. I don't want them saying 'Hey, Dover, we can do whatever we want there.' Because let's face it, that's what's being said. And I don't like it."

That's when Delaney stood up to interrupt the meeting. "We have some of the hardest-working officers in the state of New Jersey, if not the nation," he said. "They have families, too."

Calls for censure, resignation

Since the incident, Mayor James Dodd has stood by Rodriguez despite public calls for his censure or resignation. Those calls include a public letter from the Morris County Young Democrats.

"In the immediate aftermath, Mr. Rodriguez took to social media not to apologize for his actions but, among other things, to blame Dover’s chief of police for what he called 'political retribution," the Young Democrats letter reads. "It took three days for Mr. Rodriguez to issue any kind of apology, but he never walked back his initial statements."

Former Mayor Carolyn Blackman also issued a public letter calling for Rodriguez to be censured. "We are better than that," she wrote. "It is the council’s duty to censure Rodriguez. He has ridiculed our town one too many times."

Blackman ousted Dodd from office in the 2019 election, unseating the former three-term mayor. Dodd, running on a ticket with Rodriguez, won his office back in the 2023 election, defeating Blackman by a wide margin in the Democratic primary. Since then, Dodd has publicly criticized Blackman for creating a financial crisis for the town.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Dover councilman makes first court appearance after alleged assault