A University of Massachusetts freshman who says he suffered a severe head injury at the hands of police when they arrested him during FTAA protests last week remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Sunday.

Edward Owaki, 19, originally charged with disorderly conduct, said that during his time in custody he received minimal medical treatment for his head wound -- despite his complaints of dizziness and vomiting spells.

''I was kind of pinned down and hit my head on the concrete,'' Owaki said during an interview with The Herald on Sunday afternoon by his bed in the hospital's neurosurgery intensive care wing. He was moved to a regular room Sunday night.

He described his arrest on Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami during the first major clashes between police and demonstrators Thursday morning. As the protesters stood their ground, riot-geared police with shields pushed them back. He said he was linking arms with other demonstrators when police broke the human chain.

''I got pinned to the street for a few minutes. By the time I realized what was going on, I had my arms in plastic cuffs behind me,'' said Owaki, who is five feet six and weighs 130 pounds.

Following his arrest, Owaki was taken by Miami police to Ward D of Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for eight minutes for large bruises on the left side of his forehead and face, according to Miami-Dade County Jails spokeswoman Janelle Hall.

''They gave me Tylenol,'' Owaki said.

But Owaki said his condition worsened: ``My head was swimming. I couldn't keep any food down.''

A Miami police spokesman said Sunday that he could not locate records of Owaki's arrest, but said the department, in general, used as much restraint as possible in dealing with and arresting protesters.

''All the police officers knew that they had a responsibility to use all the restraint that they could and only use the force that was necessary to affect the arrest,'' Detective Delrish Moss said.

EXTREME EXAMPLE

Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild have visited Owaki in his hospital room and are pointing to his case as an extreme example of police mistreatment of the thousands of protesters who descended on Miami for the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit last week.

''What it's indicative of is how the government and police treated these people who came to express their views as enemies rather than as Americans exercising their rights as people have done for over 200 years in this republic,'' said John De Leon, a past ACLU Miami chapter president.

After spending the night in jail, Owaki was one of more than 100 defendants who appeared for misdemeanor bond hearings Friday before Judge Ivan Hernandez.

The proceedings were held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and shown on closed-circuit television.

Miami-Dade Assistant Public Defender Hugh Keough was outraged over the lack of medical attention Owaki was receiving in jail -- and told the judge so.

''He is constantly fading in and out of consciousness, your honor,'' Keough said. ``He needs access to medical attention.''

The prosecutors offered Owaki a plea deal of five days' probation, a special order forbidding him to return to the area surrounding the FTAA talks and the withholding of adjudication, which would keep the charge off his record.

His bond was set at $500.

''If he takes this plea, your honor, it's because he needs medical treatment,'' said Keough, who brushed Owaki's hair to the side in order to show the judge a contusion on his forehead. ``The access to medical treatment in the jail is inadequate.''

That made Hernandez take the plea deal off the table. The judge said he would not accept the plea arrangement because Owaki was not in his right mind and therefore could not make an informed decision, thus barring him from being released without posting bond.

''It sounds to me that he's not all there,'' Hernandez said. ``I can see the squinting of his eyes and the wound on his forehead.''

Keough strenuously objected, saying Owaki was willing to take the plea offer so he could get out of jail and get to a doctor.

''I'm concerned with the safety of this community,'' Hernandez said. ``You just told me he was incapacitated. I will not accept the plea.''

MEDICAL TREATMENT

Despite that exchange, Owaki did not receive additional medical attention until after his friends bailed him out of jail at 8:15 p.m. Friday, according to Hall, the jail spokeswoman. The charge against him was reduced to failure to obey an officer.

He headed back to a protesters' gathering place in Allapattah. A medic at the protesters convergence center examined Owaki and realized something was wrong and sent him to the hospital.

At Jackson's emergency room Friday night, doctors worried about a possible skull fracture and swelling in Owaki's brain and ordered CT scans and X-rays, Owaki said.

They moved him to intensive care in stable but guarded condition. During the interview, he seemed groggy and dazed, but spoke clearly. Sunday, a doctor said his condition had improved.

Owaki cracked a few jokes and said he didn't want to become a ''poster boy'' for police brutality. His mother flew in late in the day.

'UNPOPULAR' VIEWS

Owaki, a Japanese studies major from Bethel, Conn., and member of the Green Party, arrived by car in Miami with five classmates on Wednesday. He says some of his political views are ``unpopular.''

A member of the University of Massachusetts' Radical Student Union, he has fought to get Coca-Cola banned from campus. When he was 17, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Owaki published a paper on the Internet critical of what he perceived as the Bush administration's crackdown on civil liberties.

''At any point, if there was a command by the powers that be, free speech could be stifled,'' he said Sunday. ``I'm worried that I will stifle my own speech because of this.''

Herald staff writers Jason Grotto, Jennifer Mooney and Susan Anasagasti contributed to this report.

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