‘Is This a Joke?’: Atlanta-area Police Oddly Arrest Paraplegic Atlanta Man for ‘Kicking In’ Woman’s Door and Assaulting Her Then Stand By After He Falls From Wheelchair
A metro Atlanta police department arrested a paraplegic man confined to a wheelchair after a woman with a history of lying to police accused him of kicking down her door and assaulting her. Charles Read, who has been paralyzed for 25 years from a bullet that damaged his spine, showed up at the College Park Police Department last month hoping to clear up the false charges against him. While trying to renew his passport earlier this year, Read says he learned that a warrant for his arrest had been issued after Katherine Jensen, a woman he had dated decades ago and hadn’t seen in 20 years, called police on June 15, 2024 and told them he had just kicked down her door, choked her, and then fled on foot after trying to steal her car keys. College Park Police Officer Markenley Belotte (Left) arrested paraplegic Atlanta resident Charles Read (Right) for aggravated assault on March 20, 2025, after a woman Read dated 20 years ago accused him of kicking down her door and choking her. (Photos: City of College Park, College Park Police body cam video of Officer Belotte) Besides his physical limitations that made such actions impossible, Read was at a dinner party with friends on the night of the alleged incident, he says. He contacted College Park Police Officer Markenley Belotte, who responded to Jensen’s crime report last year, to set the record straight. After corresponding with him via email for a few weeks, Read says he agreed to meet Belotte at the police station to complete some paperwork. Belotte’s bodycam video shows Read’s surprise on March 20 when, as he sat in his wheelchair in the lobby of the police station, the officer approached and read him his rights, questioned the origin and extent of his paralysis, and then told him he was going to arrest him and take him to jail.
