MIAMI (WSVN) - It was time for trial for a former police officer who was caught on camera placing his knee on woman’s neck during an arrest. The woman said her painful encounter with the officer did not end there.
Former Miami Gardens Police Gardens Officer Jordy Martel appeared in court on Wednesday morning.
The 33-year-old faces four counts of battery and two counts of official misconduct.
Martel is being accused of pressing his knee into Safiya Satchell’s neck while she was on the ground.
Martel worked an off-duty security job at the time.
The Jan. 14, 2020 takedown stemmed from a confrontation with a waitress over food inside Tootsie’s Cabaret.
During Martel’s court appearance, Satchell took the stand to testify.
“That’s his knee on my neck,” she said.
After the confrontation inside the nightclub, Satchell went back to her car. That’s when Martel approached to give her a no-trespass order.
Martel was heard asking Satchell to follow him to his car, but she refused to get out because she didn’t have any shoes.
“We’re not going to go back and forth. You come out and we do the trespass, or you’re getting arrested” said the officer in the recording. “How do you want to do it?”
“Whatever you want to do, pull me out of the car, go ahead. Don’t reach in my car, are you crazy?” Satchell is heard saying in the footage, which was shown in court Wednesday. “You can’t reach in my car. What is he doing?”
Satchell ended up on the ground, later testifying that she “didn’t mean it” when she said to pull her out.
Defense attorney David Braun cross-examined Satchell in court.
“Satchell, have you ever heard the saying, ‘Say what you mean and mean what you say?'” Braun asked her.
Once on the ground, Satchell was shocked with a taser on her stomach, but Martel’s knee placement is the matter at issue.
“The defendant and his partner were holding my arms, and the defendant put his knee on my throat,” Satchell said on the stand.
State attorney Kioceaia Stenson drew focus to the officer’s knee in her opening statements.
“Even though she’s barefoot, even though she’s 5-feet-2, even though she’s 110 pounds soaking wet, even though she had no weapons, your defendant, that man, at that table, while holding one of her arms with his hand puts his knee on her neck while she’s on her back,” said Stenson.
The defense fired back, defending Martel’s actions and saying Satchell was twisting and kicking while on the ground.
“Ms. Satchell, the alleged victim in this case, was screaming and yelling and cursing the entire time,” said Braun. “There is not a single point where her voice or her breath is cut off. She is fighting, combative, battering my client all the way through the process.”
Satchell testified she didn’t kick while on the ground.
Red flags were raised as well in the arrest report.
Special Agent Gaylon White with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also testified on Wednesday, saying that he “noticed some untruthfulness in the report and information that was left out,” like Martel’s knee on Satchell’s neck.
The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday morning.
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