Blind Salvation Army bell ringer punched, hit with kettle

GREENBURGH - Five days before Christmas, a blind Salvation Army bell ringer on an afternoon break inside a Smashburger restaurant was punched, kicked and had his own donation kettle thrown at him by a pair with a criminal past, police said.

Despite a broken nose and smashed orbital bone, 41-year-old Jermaine Simmons, of Yonkers, who said he's legally blind in both eyes and has cerebral palsy, was back soliciting donations for the charity Tuesday in front of the Stop&Shop supermarket in White Plains.

Simmons said thinking back on the incident, he regretted how the fight escalated from a disagreement over whether he was jumping the line into something physical.

"He got in my face, I got in his face and he just, like, hit me," Simmons said, adding that maybe he could have avoided the whole confrontation. "I could have just put my hands up and back up and been professional."

After accusing the bell ringer of jumping the line, Juan Rodriguez, 30, of Valhalla punched Simmons, straddled him after he fell to the ground and continued punching while Rodriguez's friend, Audrianna Wignal, 21, of Mount Vernon, kicked the victim, police said.

Rodriguez also allegedly threw the Salvation Army kettle at Simmon's head.

"It's a vicious assault," Greenburgh police Chief Christopher McNerney said.

As the assault occurred around 3 p.m. Saturday, no one appeared to step forward to break the fight up except for a woman who held Wignal back, police said. Workers at the store as well as others did call 911 to report the attack but for the most part, did not intervene, police said, adding they are still continuing to investigate the incident.

Simmons said the store manager eventually came to break up the fight while other patrons seemed oblivious to what was happening. He said after the fight Rodriguez and Wignal stayed at the store until police arrived and interviewed all three.

Although there is video surveillance in the restaurant, it did not capture the fight, police said.

A manager at Smashburger Tuesday said he wasn't in the restaurant at the time of the fight and that the eatery had no comment.

Simmons was taken from the restaurant at 49 Tarrytown Road to White Plains Hospital with head and face injuries, police said. He was treated and released that same day and quickly began asking Salvation Army officials when he could return to his duties, said Alexis Castillo, the commanding officer of the White Plains staff.

"He's going to stand up and keep going," Castillo said.

Rodriguez, who is on parole for second degree assault, was initially charged with a misdemeanor but police later upgraded the charges to felony second-degree assault. He was held on $25,000 bail.

Wignal, the mother of a 4-year-old child and who is on probation for second-degree criminal mischief, also had her charges upgraded to second-degree assault and bail increased to $25,000. Her family struggled to post the original $500 bail and likely won't be able to come up with any additional money, Wignal's lawyer, Bernard Bacharach, said. That means she will be away from her child on Christmas and New Year's. Wignal cried in court after she learned her bail was being increased.

Bacharach said he hasn't had much time to review the case but that his client appears to have been involved in a disagreement.

"It looked like tempers flared," he said.

Police said they are continuing to investigate the assault and ask anyone with information on it to call them at 914-989-1723.