A Matamoros woman is accused of punching a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in the face for not letting her catch up to her husband who had crossed into the United States from Mexico using the pedestrian bridge at the B&M International Bridge in Brownsville, a federal criminal complaint read.
The punch in the face caused the CBP officer to get a nose bleed, the federal criminal complaint states.
The woman, identified as Nidia Dinorah Morales-Gonzalez, who was born in 1985, is also accused of running through the traffic lanes at the bridge as she tried to reach her husband although CBP officers had order her to stop and return to Mexico, the federal criminal complaint states.
Morales-Gonzalez is charged with one count of assaulting a CBP officer. She appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald G. Morgan who ordered she be held without bond. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 1.
According to the federal criminal complaint, the incident happened Thursday at the B&M Bridge. Morales-Gonzalez tried to get the attention of CBP officers that her husband had crossed the bridge and was in the U.S. She was ordered to return to Mexico, and when she tried to alert officers a second time, she crossed into the U.S. into vehicle traffic on foot.
The federal criminal complaint states Morales-Gonzalez refused to comply with CBP officer’s orders and that he had to physically escort her back to Mexico. “At this point Morales turned and punched toward a CBPO striking his face causing his nose to bleed.” The officer wrestled Morales-Gonzalez to the ground and restrained her with the help of other officers, the federal criminal complaint read.
During an interview with Morales-Gonzalez, she admitted to escalating the situation, striking the officer, and putting herself and the officers at risk when she walked in the vehicle traffic lane, the federal criminal complaint said.
