MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – It was a first for one Miami-Dade judge: a quadriplegic man facing two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer.
“I’ve truly never seen a case like this,” the judge said.
Although he can’t use his limbs, police say Bryant Amastha struck an officer with his motorized wheelchair.
But the 32-year-old, known on YouTube as recording artist El Valien-T, tells a different story.
“Did you?” Local 10 News reporter Janine Stanwood asked.
“I absolutely did not,” he replied.
Police responded to a dispute between Amastha and his mother at their home in southwest Miami-Dade’s Quail Heights area Wednesday.
According to a police report, when she was arrested, he got agitated.
“The officer, she bumped my wheelchair because I was standing in the driveway and the driveway is thin,” Amastha said.
“The report states you spit at an officer,” Stanwood pointed out.
“Right. So I suffer from acid reflux so I normally spit. And I spat in a totally different direction,” Amastha said.
When Local 10 News spoke with Amastha Friday, medics arrived to take him to the hospital.
He said he was hurt when he was arrested and taken out of his chair to be put in a squad car.
“They manhandled me,” Amastha said. “They tried to cuff me with my hands behind my back, which I can’t do.”
In court, a judge found probable cause but ordered Amastha return on his own recognizance.
“Obviously, my client’s not a flight risk,” Amastha’s attorney told the judge.
The judge ordered Amastha stay away from the officer if they happened to cross paths.
A spokesperson for Miami-Dade police said the department had not received any complaints about the incident and it was the first they had heard of any allegations of a rough arrest or of wheelchair damage.
Officers’ body-worn cameras recorded the incident; Local 10 News has put in a request for the footage.