News media across the nation covered the story of Kyle Perry, telling readers and viewers of this criminals' alleged horrible crime.

But the story they told was not true. In fact, the information they were given was incorrect.

"The police even told the Deseret News that Kyle hit the man with his car, then got out and started beating him," said Julianne Hoeger Perry, Perry's wife.

Perry had not been charged with the crime, but the story was printed as if he had been charged.

"I was not innocent until proven guilty," said Kyle Perry, 23, an All-American distance runner for BYU. "I was guilty at that moment, and 20 different news stations across the country, including ESPN and USA Today did stories as if I was guilty...the word 'allegedly' never appeared."

Perry was arrested when he allegedly assaulted another man with a mop, after nearly running into the man with his car.

"That's another misconception," Perry said. "I've gotten to the point that I say mop because everyone thinks it was a mop, but it was just a pole, there was no mop."

Perry, his then-fiancée Julianne Hoeger and another male student, were driving down Center Street in Provo on their way to Boise, Idaho on June 14, when a man walked in front of their car.

Perry slammed on the brakes to avoid running into the man.

"There wasn't enough time to stop, so I came up next to him until the car was stopped pretty much in the middle of the crosswalk," Perry said.

Perry says the pedestrian, Thomas Wellington, was mad that he had not stopped sooner and pushed his window-washing bucket into the side of the gold Honda Civic.

"He pushed it into the side of the car and it hit the mirror and left a scratch from the mirror down the side," Perry said. "So, I jumped out of the car...and ran over to the other side of the car and we argued back and forth."

It is at this point that the two sides of the story begin to contradict each other.

"Before I could see anything else, I just saw a lot of motion going on," said Coleman Warren, 20, the other male student riding in the car. "So, I turned to see what it was. At that point, Kyle was kind of pushing the guy backwards and the guy was swinging the pole that he had at Kyle. So, I don't know how it even started. I don't know what happened."

Warren jumped out of the car and ran to where the two men were fighting. Perry had pushed Wellington into a planter bed, and Warren was able to separate them.

"I put myself between them and [Wellington] started getting back up and I let him get back up, assuming that I was between them, it was over, nothing was going to happen," Warren said.

But, when Wellington stood up, he began hitting Perry and Warren with the pole.

"As soon as he started swinging it again, I pushed him back down again and he fell back down in the planter," Warren said. "I grabbed Kyle and pulled him away, out into the street ... And that was technically the end of the confrontation."

At this point, Perry's then-fiancée, Julianne Hoeger called 9-1-1.

"K, take a deep breath. Who is arguing?," the 9-11 operator said.

"My boyfriend, and some guy." Hoeger said. Because Hoeger was crying, the 9-1-1 operator had her repeat herself several times.

"Your boyfriend and some guy?"

"Yes."

"Are they physically fighting?"

"They were."

"They were? Is anybody injured?"

"I don't know..."

Shortly after, the police arrived and began their investigation.

"The police came, and tried to sort things out and to be completely honest, I'd like to say I have faith in the judicial system, but I don't think they did a very good job," Warren said. "This is my personal opinion. They didn't ask the right people the right questions, and they didn't spend a whole lot of time talking to us."

According to Perry, Hoeger and Warren, the police only asked them a couple questions before they talked to Wellington, then arrested Perry.

"The investigating officer never talked to me again, except for to put me in handcuffs," Perry said. "They took the kid's word for it ... and all of a sudden I'm the criminal because I've had a taillight out once."

During the next 2 1/2 months, Perry and Hoeger, as well as their friends and family, lost a lot of time and money.

"What bothers me is the police didn't ask us any questions or anything, they just assumed that what this kid was saying was true and then arrested me," Perry said. "It was not until $10,000 and 2 1/2 months of going to court and doing all these different things that the kid showed up on the stand and it became obvious that he was lying."

Perry and Hoeger were married on August 24, and were worried what this would mean for their future.

"This was all while me and Julianne were trying to get married so it was frustrating having this hanging over my head, that I might spend the first six months of our marriage in jail," Perry said.

Luckily for them, the charges were dropped.

"We had a preliminary hearing and he was the first witness called," Julianne Hoeger Perry said. "He was the one that had the most incentive to put Kyle away, but after his testimony the prosecution saw that there wasn't probable cause for Kyle being arrested and so they dropped it.

Wellington claims that the charges were dropped because he didn't want to ruin Perry's life. But, after the hearing, Wellington posted comments on several Web sites criticizing Perry, and said he was a typical self-righteous Mormon.

"He was just attacking me again," Perry said. "If he didn't want to screw up my life, why did he get on there?"

Perry said that this incident has made him paranoid.

"I just don't feel safe," Perry said. "The police...I don't feel like they are protecting me. I feel like they are out to get me...I haven't done anything wrong and still feel like, when I see a cop, they are just going to watch me and see what they can send me to jail for."

Copyright Brigham Young University 29 Nov 2007