Why ‘aggressive’ Kerley was still detained despite recognizance

Olympic medalist and former world champion Fred Kerley will spend more time in police custody after it emerged that a domestic violence charge had been preferred against him.

Kerley and his girlfriend Cleo Rahman popularly known as DJ Sky High Baby were involved in the incident. The sprinter was slammed on the ground with a video, circulating online, showing him being punched several times before being handcuffed.

According to Miami Beach Police, 29-year-old Kerley approached the scene of an active police investigation on the 100 block of Ninth Street, between Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive, late Thursday night.

Police said Kerley expressed concerns about his parked vehicle nearby, in the process interfering with a crime scene.

According to an arrest report, officers were investigating an unrelated active police scene when Kerley approached the area and attempted to force his way through to his vehicle, which was parked nearby.

Officers had told Kerley to go around the area, but Kerley began to argue with them, which led to a shoving match with police.

"We were simply just trying to get to the car, we weren't trying to obstruct justice or anything like that," Rahman, who was also arrested for resisting an officer without violence, told NBC News. "It's just crazy to the extent that it (took) four police officers to try to detain him. It was absolutely crazy."

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Body camera footage released by Miami Beach Police shows Kerley arguing with a group of officers before the physical confrontation erupted. Kerley was wrestled to the ground, where an officer stuck him several times and then used a Taser on him.

In court the American sprinter was charged with battery of a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer, and violent and disorderly conduct. His attorneys argued in front of the judge that police overreacted and asked that he be released without setting a bond.

"No case I have ever been involved in that has one individual requiring four officers and discharging a taser. This is a complete overuse of reasonable force by the officers. It was a simple misunderstanding that was escalated by the police,” one of the attorneys is heard saying in court footage.

The judge ordered that he be released on his recognizance but in a last-minute twist, new charges from a separate incident from May where he is accused of domestic violence and strong-arm robbery, where he allegedly got violent with his girlfriend and took her phone, have emerged.