Fla. Cop Charged With Tasing Woman, With Knee on Her Neck

A Miami police officer has been charged with battery after video surfaced of a January arrest in which he dragged a black woman from an SUV, put a knee on her neck, and stunned her twice with a Taser. Booked into jail on Thursday, Jordy Yanes Martel, a Hispanic man formerly with Miami Gardens police, is also charged with official misconduct for filing two reports containing false information about his interaction with Safiya Satchell outside a strip club on Jan. 14. Martel and Sgt. Arthur King were working as security when a manager asked that they issue a trespassing warning to Satchell, who'd argued with the manager and thrown money at a waitress, per the Miami Herald. Martel approached Satchell, 33, as she tried to leave in an SUV. He asked her to come to his patrol car so he could issue the warning. Satchell asked to drive to the car as she wasn't wearing shoes.

Satchell's friend was recording as Martel reached through the window. In his arrest report, he said Satchell closed the window on his hand and punched and kicked him as he was "helping" her out. But prosecutors say Martel dragged Satchell from the vehicle, swept her leg, put a knee on her neck, and stunned her twice in the stomach as she screamed, per Reuters. Martel and another officer, Javier Castano—each with less than two years of experience—were fired last week without explanation, though both were accused of excessive force during a March arrest, per WPLG. In laying charges, "we are saying that these actions are just plain wrong," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle tells the Herald. She adds Martel's reports were "completely made up." Satchell's initial charges of battery on a police officer and resisting with violence have been dropped. (More police officer stories.)