Man found unconscious at Hendry County hazmat scene appears in federal court

Reporter: Olivia Jean
Published: Updated:
hazmat
CREDIT: LCSO

The man arrested during a hazmat scene in Hendry County that made 20 first responders sick appeared in federal court in Fort Myers.

He faced a federal judge on Monday afternoon but not for anything related to the hazmat situation in Hendry County. He has yet to be charged for that.

According to the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office, Juan Gonzalez Diaz, of Miami, was the unconscious man found in a mobile home in Hendry County with a strong odor substance. He was quickly named as a suspect.

WINK News was the only news outlet in court on Monday afternoon where Diaz appeared in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs and asked the court to appoint him a lawyer.

A Spanish translator read him his rights while the judge deemed him competent to stand trial.

This isn’t his first time in court. WINK News obtained court documents that showed in 2015, he was charged for having stolen goods, specifically tractor trailers. Sounds familiar, right?

“We’ve run a few vehicles that have already come back stolen, we have equipment that we’ve identified as being stolen, we’ve not done a complete search on it, because we can’t we don’t know what we’re dealing with and the safety of the personnel that are going in there has to come first,” Captain Susan Harrelle of the Hendry County Sheriffs Office said.

Once he was found in the stolen mobile home in Hendry County, he went to jail and today, we are learning why.

He was in court for violating his supervised release by failing to share his change of address for two years.

He has been on the run since march 2021, according to court records.

The federal judge today decided that Gonzalaz Diaz will head back to Miami-Dade County to face these allegations in the Southern District Court, which is where his run in with the law started.

There’s no word yet on whether he will be charged for any crimes in Hendry County.

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