PROVO — A track athlete from BYU arrested last week on a charge of aggravated assault has initiated a complaint against Provo police, alleging they failed to follow protocol at the scene of the accident.

Distance runner Kyle Perry, 23, was arrested Thursday after he was accused of hitting with his car a mop bucket pushed by a pedestrian and then beating that man with his mop, according to Provo police.

But Jonathan Hoeger, Perry's soon-to-be brother-in-law, said Perry was falsely accused and questions the thoroughness of the investigation.

"Unfortunately the police made a huge mistake, and now Kyle is going to spend thousands of dollars on a defense attorney when he didn't do anything wrong," Hoeger said.

Provo Police Lt. R. Ferguson has received Perry's complaint, which says the arrest wasn't appropriate and the investigation wasn't thorough. However, Ferguson disagrees with the allegations.

"From everything I've seen as (the officer's) supervisor, he did the right thing," Ferguson said. "It's now with the county attorney for review."

The officer gathered witness statements from several bystanders who saw the accident while in nearby businesses and all told consistent stories, Ferguson said.

Yet Perry's belief is that the officer spent the majority of his time interviewing the alleged victim and only got brief written statements from Perry and his fiancee, Hoeger said.

Each witness said that as Perry was nearing 50 East Center, a pedestrian stepped out into the crosswalk pushing a mop bucket and Perry hit the man's bucket, Ferguson said.

Perry then got out of his car and started attacking the man with his mop, Ferguson said.

But Perry said he never hit the man but slammed on his brakes to miss the man, who then shoved his bucket into Perry's car, Hoeger said.

He got out of the car to talk to the man, and the man attacked him, Hoeger said.

"Obviously two people can exchange words with each other in a mutual combat situation," Provo Police Capt. Cliff Argyle said. "But in this one, with the officer's investigation, it appeared that Mr. Perry was the aggressor."

During the confrontation, Perry's fiancee, Julianne Hoeger, dialed 911 — another indicator Perry wasn't the aggressor, Hoeger said.

"She thinks her fiance is going to get beaten to death," Hoeger said. "If I'm with somebody who's committing assault, the last thing I'm going to do is call 911 and incriminate them."

A friend in the car got out to break up the fight. The officer mentioned this man in the report but never interviewed him, Argyle said. Argyle said talking with independent witnesses is preferred because they have no vested interest in the situation.

After the fight ended, Perry pulled into a nearby parking stall to wait for police, which is where they found him, Argyle said.

As a freshman at BYU, Perry won the Mountain West Conference title in the 1,500-meter run during the 2006 track and field season. He was also named an All-American after finishing 12th in the same event at the NCAA championships.

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