A distracted driving ticket issued to a Florida influencer has turned into a viral internet scandal after body camera footage appears to contradict a sheriff's deputy's explanation for the stop.
Katie, a disabled athlete and social media content creator known for her Instagram account Slightlyoff.balance, recently shared video from a traffic stop in Florida in February after she was ticketed for allegedly using a cell phone while driving.
A Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy claimed to have seen Katie holding her phone in her "right hand" while driving on North Dixie Highway. The problem, however, is that Katie doesn't have a right hand. The body camera video went viral after Katie posted clips of the traffic stop on TikTok and Instagram.
The video shows a sheriff's deputy approaching the car and telling Katie he saw her using her phone with her right hand. Katie then raises her right arm, which ends shortly after her elbow, and questions the officer's testimony.
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Trying to defuse the awkward situation, Katie joked with the deputy and asked if they could just "call it a day," but the conversation continued as the officer repeatedly asked if she had used her phone while driving.
At another point in the conversation, the deputy reportedly asked Katie to raise her "hand to God," swearing she was telling the truth. Katie laughed and raised her hand, after which the deputy instructed her to use her left hand.
Despite the confusion during the stop, Katie still received a $116 ticket for distracted driving under Florida law.
Katie announced that she had remotely pleaded not guilty and was preparing to challenge the charges in court, scheduled for May. Ahead of the hearing, she uploaded additional body camera footage of the traffic stop, further fueling the viral controversy.
According to CBS12, the report was dismissed at the request of a sheriff's deputy before a scheduled court hearing.
Known online for her content on adaptive fitness and one-armed living, Katie has built a large audience through videos she describes as "doing one-armed tricks.".
Florida's no-texting-while-driving law prohibits drivers from manually typing, reading, or entering information into a wireless device while operating a vehicle, although there are exceptions for navigation, emergency communications, and some uses of hands-free devices.
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