GILLETTE, Wyo. — Following an incident early this morning that led to a U-Haul truck pushed up into a residence, a Gillette man who was wanted on two warrants out of Campbell County is facing nine additional charges, Campbell County Sheriff Scott Matheny said.
Matheny said that at 1:13 a.m. Feb. 2, a deputy spotted and recognized the man, Rogelio Rodriguez, 43, who was driving a 2005 gold Chevrolet Impala, who was attempting to evade deputies in the area of Church Avenue. Deputies knew the man was wanted on two confirmed Campbell County warrants, Matheny said.
They found the vehicle lodged in the northwest corner of a garage on Butler Spaeth Road, with its rear flashers on, Matheny said. It appeared that the Chevrolet Impala had gone through a chain link fence and crashed into a U-Haul truck parked in the driveway, Matheny said. The U-Haul truck ended up getting pushed up against the house, Matheny said. The Chevrolet Impala became inoperable, Matheny said.
Matheny said deputies found tracks leaving the scene and tracked down the driver, who was identified as Rodriguez, and arrested him on Shalom Avenue. Rodriguez was transported to the detention center on the two warrants, Matheny said.
Law enforcement conducted a K-9 sniff of the vehicle and a hand search, Matheny said. He said they found multiple items of meth paraphernalia, hypodermic needles and a pipe. Deputies observed that the driver’s seat’s seat belt was in the locked back position, which indicated that Rodriguez didn’t have his seat belt on during the crash and they weren’t able to find his insurance, Matheny said.
One of the warrants was for domestic battery, and the other was a bench warrant for bond revocation of order to show cause for possession of a controlled substance-liquid meth, Matheny said. He said deputies, in a previous incident, arrested Rodriguez following a traffic stop when they found that he had meth.
According to Campbell County Circuit Court, Rodriguez was arraigned this afternoon on charges of driving under suspension, no insurance, expired registration, interference, leaving the scene of a crash, failure to report property damage/injury, failure to stop at a stop sign, no seat belt and careless driving, in addition to the domestic battery warrant.
Deputy Police Chief Brent Wasson said police learned of the incident at 1:13 a.m. and contacted Rodriguez at 1:42 a.m. A K-9 patrol officer did an article search in the field south of the Chara Hills subdivision following the arrest and didn’t recover anything, Wasson said.
