Loose Police Dog Bites Neighbor

Synopsis

56 year-old retired park ranger RC was walking his dog on his neighborhood sidewalk in March 2017 when an unaccompanied and off-duty 80-lb police K9 attacked his dog. Fearing for his dog’s life, RC attempted to pry the K9 off. During the scuffle, RC suffered a small bite on his ring finger.. The bite wound became infected, which led to surgical cleaning of the area, followed by additional surgeries to address resulting tendon damage. The surgeries resulted in mild contractures in his dominant hand.

Plaintiff Allegations

Plaintiff sued the K9’s owner, Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, along with the K9’s designated handler, deputy Kevin Beyrodt.

Result

The case proceeded to trial in March 2021 in Solano County. The trial was conducted over Zoom, with the jury at home and the attorneys in court. After a hard-fought fifteen days of trial, the jury unanimously found that Defendants were 100% liable, and awarded $670,00 in damages to RC. The Court later awarded $75,186.59 in costs.