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Talmika Bates will receive $967,000 from the city of Brentwood,
located about 60 miles (100 km) east of San Francisco in Contra
Costa County, her attorneys announced Friday.
Bates, who was wanted on suspicion of shoplifting items from a
makeup store, was hiding in bushes when the German Shepherd bit
her head during the arrest in February 2020.
The woman required more than 200 stitches in her head, tissue
rearrangement and laceration repair. She’s been diagnosed with
mild diffuse traumatic brain injury, mild post-traumatic brain
syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to her
attorneys.
“We need to recognize that K-9s are dangerous, sometimes lethal,
weapons that can cause life-altering damage or kill someone even
when an officer is trying to get them to release and relent,”
said civil rights attorney Adante Pointer. “Here we saw a
trained K-9 handler stand by while his dog mauled an unarmed
young lady who was surrendering."
The settlement comes six months after a federal judge stripped
the officer handling the police K-9 of some of his qualified
immunity protection, because the extended amount of time he
allowed his dog to bite Bates could be considered by a jury as
excessive force, her attorneys said.
Brentwood Police Chief Timothy Herbert said the city and its
insurance providers agreed to settle the case to avoid further
litigation and appeal costs.
“The lone claim by Ms. Bates in this litigation was excessive
force per the Fourth Amendment. In the litigation, the District
Court ruled that Officer Rezentes lawfully deployed his canine
in this search ... and that he had a lawful right to use his
canine to apprehend Ms. Bates under the Fourth Amendment,”
Herbert said in a statement.
Herbert said the police department currently has no working K-9
officers.
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