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Olympic sprinter Fred Kerley’s legal woes continued over the weekend following his Thursday arrest in Miami Beach.
Kerley’s estranged wife, Angelica Taylor, appeared in his bond hearing Saturday. “They asked me to be here and speak on his behalf, but I want to proceed with pressing charges on him,” she told the judge. Taylor appeared in court using her maiden name, but she has also been identified in news reports and on social media as Angelica Kerley.
On Thursday night, the two-time Olympic medalist and former world champion was arrested after a verbal and physical altercation with Miami Beach police that resulted in officers beating and tasing him. Both Kerley and a woman identified by police as his girlfriend were arrested, and on Friday, a judge scolded police for their handling of the situation.
But also on Friday, Miami-Dade police filed charges against Kerley for an alleged incident of domestic violence that occurred in May 2024. That case’s first hearing happened Saturday, after which he was released on bond.
Kerley faces two felony charges in the case, one for strong-arm robbery and another for domestic battery by strangulation.
Taylor gave an interview to CBS News Miami where she detailed the incident with her husband, which she said happened in front of her 8-year-old daughter. She also said she’s asked Kerley for a divorce multiple times, but he won’t give her one. Thursday’s bodycam footage is what led her to speak out, she said.
“Seeing the video of this recent incident and how like he was aggressive, it kind of made me think, like, he didn’t feel any remorse for what he did to me,” she said. “I know that I have to think about my children, but he didn’t think about his children in that situation.”
Kerley and Taylor share three children. The police affidavit obtained by Front Office Sports says the two had been together for 10 years and married for three at the time of the incident in May.
“When I was watching him go to the Olympics, knowing what he’s done, it’s just like, nobody really knows who he is,” Taylor said.
Yale Sanford, one of Kerley’s attorneys, declined to comment to FOS on the domestic violence case Monday morning. The attorneys told CBS News Miami that the notion Kerley won’t grant Taylor a divorce is “just as ridiculous as the allegations against Fred.”
The affidavit says the couple got into an argument over Taylor contacting someone on Instagram. The document says Taylor punched Kerley in the face out of fear, after which he pushed her to the ground and choked her. “I’m not going to lie, at some point, I thought that he was going to kill me,” Taylor told CBS News Miami. Kerley initially drove away with Taylor’s phone but brought it back after he was contacted, police reported.
Miami-Dade police arrived on the scene after Kerley left again and witnesses “became uncooperative and would not provide a statement,” according to the affidavit. Taylor identified Kerley to the police, who entered a “probable cause message for arrest,” but didn’t file charges until Friday when they realized he was being held in Miami Beach, the affidavit says.
A representative for the Miami-Dade Police Department did not immediately provide a statement explaining why police waited months to file charges against Kerley, who medaled at the Paris Olympics this summer.
He was initially facing three charges in the other case, but the judge reduced that number to two on Friday: battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer without violence. The former is a felony, while the latter is a misdemeanor.
Kerley’s arrangement hearings are set for Jan. 31 for the incident with police and Feb. 3 for the domestic violence case.
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