nws estevez

Joel Estevez, 29, an accused child molester from Brooklyn, was arrested in a road rage incident that occurred inside the Holland Tunnel on June 17, 2015. (Port Authority Police Department)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Brooklyn man accused of molesting a 9-year-old Staten Island girl on Christmas Day 2013 was arrested Thursday in an unrelated road rage incident, Port Authority police said.

Joel Estevez, 29, of Williamsburg, escalated a verbal dispute with another driver when he slashed the man's car with a machete as they traveled side-by-side through the Holland Tunnel into New Jersey Wednesday night, Port Authority spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said.

Estevez, who was driving in the right lane, allegedly leaned out of the driver's side window of his 2013 Honda wagon and began chopping at the other motorist's car while steering his own vehicle with his right hand, Pentangelo said.

The other vehicle, a 2013 Toyota, sustained side damage, but its 49-year-old male driver was not harmed, he said.

The Toyota's driver followed the machete-wielding motorist long enough to take down his license plate number, which he reported to Port Authority police.

Detectives traced the Honda wagon to one of Estevez's relatives, which led them to Estevez, whom they arrested on Thursday night at his South 3rd St. home, Pentangelo said.

He's charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, criminal mischief and simple assault, the spokesman said.

Estevez was remanded without bail to Rikers Island and will appear Monday in Brooklyn Supreme court to face the charges, Department of Corrections records show.

The 29-year-old Brooklynite was charged in a sexual assault case on Staten Island last summer.

He's accused of inappropriately touching his common-law wife's daughter as she slept inside of her North Shore home on Christmas Day 2013.

The child, who was 9 at the time, reported the incident to a school social worker about five months later, an NYPD spokeswoman said.

Estevez was arrested last June 16 and charged with forcible touching and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17. He returns to Stapleton Criminal Court on Friday on those charges.