DA: Dorchester man threatens off-duty cop with a machete as Sandy winds down

Joel Gonzalez-Santana, 34, had bail set at $1,500 today because of an incident around 1:15 a.m. near near Erie and Washington streets, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

According to the DA's office, an off-duty officer was investigating what appeared to be a single-car crash when Gonzalez-Santana threatened him with a machete.

The DA's office reports Gonzalez-Santana was one of just two people arraigned today in Dorchester District Court, normally the state's busiest district court, because tropical-storm-force winds apparently kept miscreants and other ne'er-do-wells inside along with the rest of us.

The other man, Reinaldo Vega, 46, was charged with breaking into a car on Charlotte Street at the height of the storm, around 5:15 p.m. His bail on an earlier larceny case was revoked, the DA's office reports.

Innocent, etc.