Video: Police Hogtie Italian FIU Student After Arrest in North Miami Beach

A group of North Miami Beach police officers hogtied a local student after his arrest and left him restrained on the floor of a holding cell for more than 12 minutes, body-camera footage shows.

In February, Matteo Falcinelli — a 25-year-old Italian student studying at Florida International University (FIU) — was arrested outside Dean's Gold strip club after allegedly refusing to leave the property and "intentionally touching" two off-duty officers who responded to the scene, according to an arrest report. He was taken to North Miami Beach Police Department's holding facility before being booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

In police body camera footage widely picked up by Italy's major newspapers, such as La Repubblica and Il Messaggero, officers are shown placing Falcinelli on his stomach and tying his cuffed hands to his bound feet behind his back with an adjustable belt during his arrest — a highly controversial practice known as hogtieing.
For decades, hogtieing has been banned in many law enforcement agencies across the country, including Los Angeles and New York police departments. Since 1995, the Department of Justice has warned against hogtieing, which can limit a person's ability to breathe and potentially kill them.

A 2021 investigation by the Marshall Project and NBC News found that while exact numbers are difficult to pinpoint, owing in part to a lack of national reporting requirements, at least 23 people died after being hogtied or restrained with a hobble (the belt used to hogtie people) while in law enforcement custody from 2010 to 2021.

It's unclear what the North Miami Beach Police Department's policy is regarding the practice. New Times reached out to the department but has yet to hear back.

According to an arrest report (attached at the bottom of this story), Falcinelli was kicked out of the North Miami Beach strip club in the early morning hours of February 25, and two off-duty police officers were notified about his refusal to leave the club. The report alleges that Falcinelli — who spent $500 inside the club and was asking for his money back — was taken to the pavement and handcuffed after he intentionally pushed the officers.

But body-camera footage shows no shoving, pushing, or other violent physical contact by Falcinelli in the moments leading up to the arrest.

The video shows officers confronting the Italian student outside the club, with one telling the seemingly intoxicated student, "Listen brother, go home."

"No, I need my phone! They have my phone!" he shouts, pointing to the club.

Falcinelli curses at the cops, mumbles something about his rights, and asks one of the officers, "What's your name?"

When the officer replies with his last name, Falcinelli points his finger at and touches the officer's chest. Suddenly, the cops grab him by the wrists, slam him up against a car, and onto the ground.

"Don't fucking touch me," an officer can be heard telling him.

Less than an hour later, around 4:30 a.m., body-camera footage shows three officers quickly hogtieing Falcinelli inside a jail cell.

As one of the officers binds Falcinelli's legs and then connects them to his handcuffs, Falcinelli begins to wail in pain. His screams become louder and louder as one of the cops tightens the tie.

"Please, please, please!" he begs the officers. "I have my rights. I have my rights!"

"We warned you!" one of the officers responds before the three cops leave Falcinelli inside the cell and shut the door.

Video shows police returning roughly 12 minutes later to untie Falcinelli. With a visible wound on his face, he is heard weeping and saying, "I haven't done anything," as an officer comes into the cell and removes the restraints.

The published footage does not show all of the events immediately preceding the hogtieing.

The Miami-Dade County court docket indicates Falcinelli, now 26, entered a deferred prosecution program for counts of battery on law enforcement and resisting police without violence. Prosecutors dropped the trespassing charge.

According to Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, Falcinelli is from Spoleto, an ancient hilltop town in Umbria, Italy. He is currently pursuing a master's degree at FIU's Biscayne Bay campus.

A LinkedIn account that appears to belong to Falcinelli states that he attended school in Italy and England as a child,  went to high school in Spoleto. He studied at North Carolina Wesleyan College from 2018 to 2022, where he pursued an undergraduate degree in business administration and marketing, the profile says.

In Italian-language interviews with media about her son's arrest, Falcinelli's mother, Vlasta Studenicova, referred to his treatment by the police as "torture" and said that following his arrest, he repeatedly attempted suicide.

"They destroyed the serenity of a splendid boy," she told reporters.

This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.