Hill's citations dismissed after officers' no-show
MIAMI — Traffic citations issued to Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill after a September altercation with police have been dismissed after the charging officers didn’t attend a court hearing.
Hill’s tickets for careless driving and failing to wear a seat belt were dismissed after the Miami-Dade Police officers failed to show up for a Monday hearing. The tickets were issued after Hill was stopped outside Hard Rock Stadium for allegedly speeding before the Dolphins’ season opener on Sept. 8. The stop escalated and an officer pulled Hill from the car, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him.
“As anticipated, the traffic citations against Tyreek Hill were dismissed. Police officers should not issue citations unless they are willing to testify in court, under oath, with respect to same,” attorneys Devon Jacobs, Stephen Kelly, Jeffrey Neiman and Julius Collins said in a statement. “Officer [Danny] Torres and [Manuel] Batista’s absence from court today evidences their knowledge of wrongdoing. These officers should be disciplined for their failure to appear. Mr. Hill was entitled to have his day in court and the officers failed to appear. It is our belief that Officer Torres and Officer Batista failed to appear in court so that they could not be questioned under oath.”
Hill said in a Tuesday post on the social platform X, “Where all the internet cops now.”
The Miami-Dade Police Department said it would have a statement later Tuesday.
Police body camera video from the September stop showed Hill appeared to speed past two motorcycle officers who were monitoring traffic on a road outside the stadium. They pulled over his McLaren sports car and one tapped on his window. Hill, 30, handed the officer his driver’s license, but told the officer repeatedly, “Don’t knock on my window like that.” He then put his window back up.
Their verbal exchange escalated, and the officers soon pulled him from the car, forcing Hill face-first to the ground. The officers cursed at Hill, but he did not resist their physical force or strike at them in the video. He did tell one officer, “Don’t tell me what to do.”
Hill was eventually stood up, but then an officer dragged him into a sitting position on the curb after he said a knee injury made that difficult.
After about 30 minutes, Hill was issued citations and allowed to enter the stadium.
One officer was placed on administrative duty and an internal affairs investigation was launched. No results have been released.
ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
