Boca Raton Man Arrested After Roadside Confrontation Between Employer and Ex-Employee

Stepan Kalenyuk (Photo: Palm Beach County Jail)

A Boca Raton man was arrested Saturday and charged with burglary with battery after police said he reached into a moving vehicle and struck his former employer during a dispute over a house key.

Stepan Kalenyuk, 28, was taken into custody around 1:37 p.m. Sept. 12 in the 1600 block of NW 4th Avenue, according to the Boca Raton Police Department. According to the arrest affidavit, officers responded to a report of a battery shortly after 12:35 p.m. The alleged victim told police he was driving a black Cadillac Escalade with a passenger inside when he spotted Kalenyuk, a former employee, near his own vehicle. The two men then got into a verbal argument over a key that Kalenyuk had allegedly not returned after his employment ended, police said.

The alleged victim told investigators that during the confrontation, Kalenyuk approached the passenger side of the vehicle, stepped onto the door rail and reached inside, striking him once in the face and once on the arm. Kalenyuk denied striking the man in the face, according to the report. A passenger in the vehicle gave a separate statement to police saying she did not see Kalenyuk strike the driver’s face but did see him strike the man’s arm. She also told officers she saw Kalenyuk spit at the driver multiple times, the affidavit states.

Police said surveillance video from inside the vehicle corroborated the accounts, showing Kalenyuk step onto the door rail, reach inside and make what appeared to be a “throwing motion” toward the driver. The footage also appeared to show Kalenyuk spitting toward the driver and pulling on the door handle in what police described as an attempt to gain entry to the vehicle. The report noted that Kalenyuk’s young children were present during the altercation.

After being read his Miranda rights, Kalenyuk allegedly admitted to spitting in the man’s direction and reaching into the vehicle in an attempt to strike him, but said he did not make contact, according to the report.

Kalenyuk remained lodged in the Palm Beach County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $10,000 bail.