MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Jordy Yanes Martel, the fired Miami Gardens officer who is accused of police brutality, was quiet as he walked out of a Miami-Dade County jail on Thursday night and into a waiting car.
Martel faces two counts of official misconduct and four counts of battery. A woman’s cellphone video showed him pulling Safiya Satchell out of her car.
Her friend, who was a passenger in the car, started filming with her cellphone when Martel got aggressive. He allegedly used his leg to cause her to fall.
The video shows him placing his knee on her neck and shooting her with a Taser.
“We believe a review of the video reflects that Martel allegedly was the aggressor,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said during a news conference to announce the charges against Martel on Thursday.
The incident with Martel and Satchell, 33, occurred while he was wearing his Miami Gardens Police Department uniform on Jan. 14 outside of Tootsie’s Cabaret. He responded after she was accused of being “disrespectful,” according to the arrest report.
This isn’t Martel’s only case over alleged excessive use of force. The department hired him in October 2018.
Before Fernandez Rundle’s announcement, Miami Gardens Police Chief Delma Noel-Pratt had already decided to fire Martel. Another video showed the beating of a witness at a gas station in March.
“This officer had options,” Noel-Pratt said. “He could have made other choices, but he didn’t choose that.”
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