A Grimes man who sometimes styles himself a “foreign ambassador” was arrested Saturday on a Dallas County warrant in connection with an October incident in Waukee in which he allegedly assaulted a Coralville woman.
Caylan Santos Cordaro, 32, of 2301 N.W. County Line Road, Grimes, was charged with assault.
The incident occurred Oct. 9 about 11 a.m. in the 1100 block of Olsen Drive in Waukee, where the victim was attempting “to do her job” when Cordaro allegedly approached the victim, “called her multiple offensive names and ‘body checked’ or pushed her with his body, not allowing her to enter a residence,” according to court records.
A witness to the interaction, who “had a similar recollection of the incident as” the victim, said the victim “was visually upset and was crying” after the alleged assault, according to court records.
A warrant for Cordaro’s arrest was ordered Oct. 21 in Dallas County District Court and served Nov. 23. He was held in the Dallas County Jail on a $300 cash or surety bond in advance of an initial appearance in Dallas County District Court.
Cordaro was also arrested in Urbandale earlier on Saturday on a charge of driving while barred.
According to court records, an officer of the Urbandale Police Department initiated a traffic stop shortly after midnight Saturday on a 2001 Toyota Camry “that appeared to have fraudulent ‘Diplomat’ license plates,” and the driver, Cordaro, “initially described himself as a ‘Foreign Ambassador.'”
Cordaro then gave the officer “an envelope with multiple documents and a sticky note, stating ‘Rights to Travel,'” according to court records. He gave the officer his name “but refused to provide his date of birth, stating, ‘That’s proprietary I can’t give that out.'”
Asked whether he had a valid driver’s license from any U.S. state, Cordaro told the officer, “Only citizens are allowed to have those. I’m not a citizen. I’m a national,” according to court records.
Cordaro was held in the Polk County Jail prior to his release on a pretrial release agreement. He is scheduled for arraignment Jan. 8 in Polk County District Court.
Cordaro was convicted of theft in 2013 in Polk County District Court. He was arrested in Des Moines in 2015 on a charge of assault causing bodily injury or mental illness, but the charge was later dismissed in Polk County District Court. He was convicted in August 2024 of interference with official acts after he was stopped in June by an Iowa State Patrol Trooper for speeding and “refused to identify himself for an extended period of time,” only referring to “himself as a private citizen” who “was traveling under common law,” according to court records. The vehicle identification number on Cordaro’s “vehicle was obstructed by a paper that said, ‘Traveling under Common Law,'” according to court records.
Cordaro’s application in Polk County District Court for a public defender suggest similar sovereign-citizen tendencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation describes members of the sovereign citizen movement as “anti-government extremists who believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or ‘sovereign’ from the U.S.”
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
