MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Two traffic citations were issued. Miami Dolphins Wide receiver Tyreek Hill He was fired in September after the responding officers failed to show up for a court hearing on Monday.
Hours before the Dolphins’ regular season opener on Sept. 8, Hale was allegedly pulled over by Miami-Dade Police Officer Manuel Batista for speeding and cited for reckless driving and failure to wear a seat belt. The incident went viral after Miami-Dade Police Officer Danny Torres was seen dragging Hill out of his car and handcuffing him.
Torres’ behavior was captured on the officers’ body cameras, and he was immediately placed on administrative duties. An internal affairs investigation was launched, but inconclusive.
Attorneys Devon Jacobs, Stephen Kelly, Jeffrey Neiman and Julius Collins released a statement following Hill’s dismissal of their citations.
“As expected, the traffic citations against Tyreke Hill have been dismissed. Police officers should not issue citations until he testifies in court, under oath, about him. Don’t be prepared for,” he said in a statement. “Officers Torres and Batista’s absence from court today is evidence of their knowledge of their wrongdoing. These officers should be disciplined for their failure to appear. Mr. Hill was entitled to his day in court and the officers appeared Failed to happen.
“It is our belief that Officer Torres and Officer Battista failed to appear in court so that they could not be questioned under oath.”
Hill said in a post on Tuesday On X“Where are all the internet police now.”
Miami-Dade police said the officers’ failure to attend was “an oversight” and “the matter will be dealt with administratively.” Still, the department defended issuing tickets to Hill.
“A citation rejected for this reason does not indicate that the citation lacks merit,” the agency said in a statement.
Hill has previously admitted that he didn’t handle the situation as well as he could have. While he initially complied with Batista’s order to roll down his window, Hill rolled his window back up after telling Batista to issue him a ticket and get on with his day.
Hill said he bore no ill will toward the police, but he had called for Torres’ firing in September.
Hill’s companions during the initial incident Juno Smith And Kelis Campbell They reached the scene in an attempt to defuse the situation. Smith was eventually cited. Campbell was briefly detained but released without citation.
Hill has been at the center of several off-field incidents since joining the Dolphins in 2022, including a physical altercation with a Halver Marina employee in June 2023 and a lawsuit alleging that earlier this year he The social media influencer had his leg broken.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Hill is a “different person” from when they first met, and the 30-year-old Hill said he believes he’s grown over the past few years.
“It just happened at the right time in my life because of the way I’ve matured, the way I’ve been handling myself with my kids, stepping up as a father, just everything, man,” Hill said. said in September. “The older I get, man, the more I realize how important it is for me to just be a pro. Obviously when you first come into the league, you just want to have fun, which Want to do anything but I’ve done it all now I’m looking at being a father, a husband and just being the family man my grandparents raised me to be.
“So that’s maturity. [McDaniel is] Talking about when my colleagues see me, I’m with my wife, I’m with my kids. I’m enjoying life, man. I’m slowing down my life. I’m not doing the crazy things I used to do when I first got into the league. I now carry myself with a lot of respect and a lot of dignity.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.