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Man sues West Sacramento, police officers over alleged police dog attack
By Denny Walsh - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 4:59 pm PDT Friday, September 14, 2007
The city of West Sacramento and five of its police officers are being sued over claims by a man who says he was permanently injured by a vicious, unprovoked attack by a police dog.
In the early hours of Dec. 4, 2005, Eduardo Delatorre was mistaken by officers for a man reported to be brandishing a handgun in the parking lot of the River's Edge Bar & Grill on West Capitol Avenue, according to his civil rights lawsuit filed in Sacramento federal court.
Delatorre was not the person with the gun, but before police determined that officers ordered him to get down on the pavement, and "Lugar," a 100-pound police dog, "was set upon him without warning," the suit alleges.
Delatorre was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest and being drunk in public, according to the suit.
A jury acquitted Delatorre of the latter charge and deadlocked 10-2 for acquittal on the resisting-arrest charge, which was then dropped by the Yolo County District Attorney's Office.
The suit alleges officers arrested and charged Delatorre "in an attempt to shield themselves from civil liability."
The suit says Lugar and Kinney have a "bloody past of inflicting serious unjustified injuries on citizens" and cites two other cases in which citizens were injured by Lugar.
The West Sacramento Police Department Website links to its- K9 Unit Web page - indicating that Lugar, who appears to be a German shepherd, is now retired.
Police Chief Dan Drummond said the department's use of the dog was justified.
"In reviewing this, the use of force was necessary and appropriate under the circumstances," Drummond said Friday. "There are witnesses placing that suspect at the scene with a gun. Then, we had our officer who viewed that suspect with a gun when he first arrived there.
"I have confidence that it was proper and necessary to do what the officers did to protect other innocent people at the scene.
"He evaded and eluded officers hiding behind vehicles. He was ordered numerous times to get on the ground. He started walking toward the entrance of the bar. Well, you're not about to let a man with a gun enter a bar that he has just been thrown out of. He had to be taken down, and the best way to do that was with the canine."
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