Victim was out for a walk when he
was attacked by police dog searching for a domestic-violence suspect, resulting
in serious injuries to his right arm.
By Mike Carter
Pierce County will pay a Tacoma man $225,000
to settle a civil-rights lawsuit arising out of a May 2011 attack by a police
dog while he was out for an early morning walk.
Chad Boyles reached the
settlement with Pierce County, which paid the settlement even though the
injuries were inflicted by a Lakewood Police Department dog. The dog, K-9
Officer Astor, and his handler, Lakewood Officer Jim Syler, had been called to
assist Pierce County sheriff’s deputies in the search for a suspect in a
domestic-violence assault.
Boyles, 27, had argued with his
brother early on May 7 and had taken a walk to cool off. He walked down a trail
into a large, overgrown field near his home when Astor, who was at the end of a
30-foot lead, came over a small rise and attacked.
In an interview last year with
The Seattle Times for a story on accidental K-9 bites, Boyles said the dog
“came out of nowhere” and seemed to be going for his throat. The dog tore into
his right forearm, which Boyles said he had raised to protect himself.
Syler appeared a few seconds
later to call off the dog, but not until Boyles suffered a tearing wound to his
arm that exposed tendon and bone. His injuries required surgery.
Astor and Syler have been named
in several lawsuits involving serious dog bites.
A federal jury in December
rejected a civil-rights lawsuit filed by another man bitten by Astor, Noel
Saldana, who suffered a leg wound that has left him with a permanent limp. The
jury found that Syler’s use of the dog was appropriate because Saldana was a
suspect in a domestic-violence call and was apparently trying to hide from
officers.
Even so, Lakewood paid nearly
$35,000 toward Saldana’s medical expenses.
In 2009, a felon named Richard
Conley was paid $15,000 after Astor bit him in the back and arm while he was
trying to hide in a bedroom of a house. According to a lawsuit, he required
three surgeries and spent nine days in the hospital.
Pierce County is responsible
for the payout in the Boyles case because Astor and Syler, while both Lakewood
officers, had been called to assist the county, making it liable through a K-9
interlocal agreement contract, said Deputy Pierce County Prosecutor Michelle
Luna-Green.
Lakewood Police Chief Brett
Farrar said Thursday that the Boyles incident was a mistake and that Syler went
to the hospital and apologized afterward.
He said deputies were seeking a
domestic-violence suspect when a deputy apparently mistook Boyles for the
suspect and called for Syler and his dog to track him into the field.
Astor was retired last year and
sold for $1 by the city to Syler, who now owns him as a family pet, the chief
said.
