MIRAMAR, Fla. – Authorities booked a 69-year-old Pembroke Pines man into the Broward County jail on Wednesday after police said he severely beat another senior in a Walmart parking lot over a traffic dispute.
According to an arrest report, at around 5 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2023, Juan Antonio Fiscalini was backing his Toyota Corolla out of a disabled parking space at the Walmart at 1800 S. University Drive in Miramar when he grazed the victim with his car.
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The victim yelled at Fiscalini, Miramar police said, and Fiscalini got out of the vehicle. The arrest report states that the verbal argument turned physical when Fiscalini shoved the man to the ground, punched him in the face at least once and then kicked him in the face while he was on the ground.
Police said a bystander broke up the tussle and Fiscalini then left.
Meanwhile, the man suffered an orbital fracture, a damaged eye lens and a hematoma to the left eye, something the investigating officer wrote at the time “may lead to permanent loss of vision in the left eye,” police said.
Police would later trace Fiscalini’s vehicle to his home in Pembroke Pines, where authorities said he admitted to what happened and claimed he was defending his wife, who has Alzheimer’s disease, “from being verbally accosted” by the victim.
Police forwarded the case to the Broward State Attorney’s Office, which elected to pursue a charge of aggravated battery on a person over 65 against Fiscalini. The charge is a first-degree felony.
He turned himself in on Wednesday ahead of a scheduled court date, which was reset to Thursday. His attorney entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf in December, ahead of that court date.
Prosecutors filed a motion for pre-trial detention because of what they said was the probability of “intimidation or danger to the victim” and Fiscalini’s past criminal history.
“The defendant was adjudicated for battery on a law enforcement officer, along with a misdemeanor battery, DUI, DWLS (driving while license suspended) and resisting without violence, all from 1998,” Assistant State Attorney Nneka Utti wrote in the motion.
That case was out of Coconut Creek, according to Broward court records.
According to jail records, Fiscalini remained in the Broward Main Jail on Thursday, with a $10,000 bond pending.