MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A former police officer provided his perspective Monday on the Miami Beach arrest of Olympic sprinter Fred Kerley.
Kerley, 29, was arrested Thursday evening on South Beach after police said the medalist assaulted an officer after being asked to leave a police scene. He was released from jail over the weekend after also appearing in court in connection with felony domestic violence-related charges in an unrelated case from 2024.
In an earlier bond court hearing, Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer questioned officers’ conduct. Body camera video of the arrest also led to debate over how police handled the star athlete’s arrest, with Kerley’s attorney saying Kerley “was treated like millions of African-Americans” in the country.
But both the police department and its union defended how officers dealt with Kerley.
Local 10 News spoke with Coral Gables attorney Richard Diaz, who was once a Miami-Dade police officer, about the video on Monday. He’s not involved in the case.
“I am not pro-police. I am not anti-police,” Diaz noted. “I sue police officers; I defend them. I used to enforce the law. I defend it now.”
Having reviewed the single body camera angle released by Miami Beach police, he weighed in on what he saw as a former cop and now attorney.
Diaz said “it was clear it was mishandled from the beginning as Judge Glazer suggested” but said “there is nothing here about race” or color.
“This was just attitude, a mouthing off by one person and a police officer that wasn’t going to have it,” he said. “I see two things: if you see what Mr. Kerley did, that is how you are going to end up if you disrespect police. But it is not a crime to disrespect the police which leads us to two, many of these officers — not all of them — think mouthing off to the police and disrespecting them is obstruction of justice. It is not.”
He broke down portions of the video and said both Kerley and officers made mistakes during the encounter.
“It appears that the officer’s left hand goes to the chest of Mr. Kerley. That is mistake number one. A police officer is not supposed to put their hands on a citizen,” Diaz said. “The second thing that I saw is that instead of trying to have a conversation and de-escalate the situation, it appeared the officer’s intention was to gain physical control (and) manhandle the situation when it is uncertain if the situation needed to be manhandled.”
But he noted that “even if a police officer thinks that they have probable cause and they are wrong, they still have a right to take you into custody and if you resist even minimally they have the right to meet and match that force.”
As for video showing officers punching Kerley, Diaz said, “The training does allow, nationwide, what I call a claw punch, which is you take your hand as such and you are able to effectuate three blows to the head to either side.”
“That is very effective in buzzing or disabling a person temporarily in order to secure the handcuffs on both wrists,” he said.
Diaz also weighed in on what he thinks will happen next.
“I guarantee the officer is going to learn a lesson from this, because they are going to get sued and I have to believe Mr. Kerley will next time be a little more respectful when he comes in contact with a law enforcement officer as he should have on this occasion,” he said.
Diaz described “two lessons” learned from the incident.
“Don’t mouth off to the police, don’t disrespect them, why put yourself in that situation?” Diaz said. “Police officers need to understand, you may have this person who is a celebrity, they may have this sense of entitlement, but if they insult you, that is not obstructing justice and that is not an assault and you can’t put them in jail for that.”
He added, “What is definitely necessary is that police officers need to be better trained on how to handle and de-escalate these situations.”
“We have celebrities in Miami, we have a lot of non-celebrities with a lot of money, there is this incredible and ridiculous sense of entitlement by a lot of people on the streets and they overstep, not showing respect for law enforcement, who are entitled to have that respect given, but they (police) have to give it back as well,” Diaz said.
Diaz called for more “sensitivity training for officers.”
He said he believes that “better heads will prevail later on” and that Miami-Dade prosecutors will hopefully “come to a right charging decision.”