Katie, a Florida-based adaptive athlete and influencer who posts on TikTok and Instagram under the handle @slightlyoff.balance, went viral after sharing body cam footage of a traffic stop that quickly became one of the more widely viewed law enforcement encounters on the internet.
On the morning of February 11th, around 8:04 a.m., Katie was driving northbound on North Dixie Highway in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, when a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy pulled her over during a distracted driving operation. His claim was straightforward: “You drove past me holding the phone with your right hand, manipulating that phone.”
There was one obvious problem. Katie has a limb difference where her right arm ends just past the elbow. She has no right hand.
Rather than acknowledging the error and sending her on her way, the deputy shifted his position. When Katie pointed out, “You just said my right hand,” he replied, “Well, I thought I saw you with your right hand. You had a hand up.” He continued: “With the right hand, perhaps not right, but…”
The exchange captured on body cam showed Katie calmly pressing back: “You didn’t see me with my right hand.”
Despite the physical impossibility of his original claim, the deputy issued her a citation under Florida Statute 316.305-3A for using a wireless communication device while driving. The fine was $116.
Beyond the fine itself, traffic citations like this carry a hidden financial consequence. A distracted driving violation raises insurance premiums by an average of 23%, roughly $357 per year for around three years, meaning a $116 ticket can easily translate into over $1,000 in total additional costs.
Katie chose to move against it. On April 21st, she entered a not-guilty plea via Zoom and was scheduled for a hearing on May 27th. She shared her journey on social media with a sense of humor that resonated widely, and the body cam footage accumulated nearly 170 million views.
There was also a legal problem beyond the physical one. Florida’s texting while driving law, Statute 316.305, specifically prohibits manually typing or entering characters into a wireless device for the purpose of non-voice communication, such as texting or emailing.
The law explicitly permits holding a phone for navigation or voice calls. The deputy had no documented proof that Katie was doing anything prohibited, and he could not even reliably identify which hand the phone was supposedly in.
On the eve of the May 27th hearing, the deputy requested the case be dismissed. Katie received paperwork confirming the outcome, citing lack of evidence. As she put it: “Bro, we knew that already.”
The case was dismissed without ever reaching trial, though the timing strongly suggests it would not have ended that way had the footage never gone viral.
