After blasting Immigration and Customs Enforcement for not deporting an undocumented suspect, the Polk County Sheriff's Office now says that the man accused of attacking a Lake Wales police officer was not deported because of a clerical mistake their office made. 

The Lake Wales Police department said Officer Colt Black spotted Marcelino Jimenez-Cruz, 41, riding a bicycle along Highway 60 in the dark with no lights. When Black tried to stop Jimenez-Cruz, he took off into a shopping center parking lot, according to the agency.

When Black caught up to Jimenez-Cruz, officials said Jimenez-Cruz attacked the officer and bit him. A witness called 911 as the altercation was happening.

As it turns out, Jimenez-Cruz fought with Polk deputies and choked a k-9 officer when they tried to arrest him a year ago. A deputy suffered a broken hand in the incident.

"We made notification to ICE last time and they didn’t deport him," said Sheriff Grady Judd. "But we are not going to make notification to ICE this time. We are going to make notification several times. And we are going to demand an answer as to why they didn’t deport him when we had him all bunched up for felony charges before."

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Jimenez-Cruz is an illegal immigrant.

In a statement, Sheriff's Office representative Carrie Horstman said "We have since learned that when Cruz was arrested in 2017, a box on the arrest form was erroneously marked that he was a U.S. citizen. 

As a result, his name was not sent to ICE at that time

The agency has apologized for the error.

"We gave you wrong information, and I own that," Judd said Thursday. "Make no mistake about it, when we mess up, we 'fess up and we fix up. We're in the process of fixing up right now."

"We have apologized profusely to ICE," Judd explained. "And I called the chief of Lake Wales and I apologized to him, 'cause had we reported [Cruz] like we should have a year ago, he very well may not have been out to beat their officer."