Vallejo settles lawsuit over police dog bite for $40K

VALLEJO – The city of Vallejo agreed to pay $40,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a driver who said he was attacked by a Vallejo police dog following a police pursuit last year, according to court records.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by Myles Tomerlin in August and alleged that Vallejo police used excessive force and violated his civil rights when they allowed a police dog to bite his arm for 23 seconds through the window of his car. 

The city swiftly settled the suit for $40,000 a month later, according to an offer of judgment filed by the city. 

The incident called into question use of force statistics released by the department’s professional standards division, which said that officers did not deploy dogs at all during 2022, but did three times so far in this year.

Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis acknowledged that the 2022 use of force statistics were inaccurate and said that the professional standards division would be reviewing the data to re-release it.

The use of force reports show a significant increase in force by Vallejo police officers so far this year, but Vallejo police argued that certain categories were not tracked well last year, making comparisons difficult. 

Tomerlin’s lawsuit alleges that on March 12, 2022, Vallejo police officers Zach Horton and Rosendo Mesa attempted to pull him over. He was afraid of the officers because of the department’s reputation for violence, so he did not immediately yield, according to the lawsuit.

According to a pursuit report submitted to the California Highway Patrol, Vallejo police attempted to pull over a driver for reckless driving at 1:06 a.m. that day, who led Horton and Mesa on a 2-mile pursuit that lasted 2 minutes and ended when the suspect’s car was disabled.

After he stopped, Tomerlin waited in the car for the officers with his window down and did not resist, according to the lawsuit. But despite that, Mesa either commanded or allowed his police dog Loki to enter Tomerlin’s car through the window and bite him.

The dog bit Tomerlin on his bicep for 23 seconds and Mesa took no action to stop it, despite that the dog was equipped with a collar that could give the dog an electronic command to stop the attack, according to the lawsuit.

The attack left Tomerlin with physical injuries as well as continued fear and anxiety, the lawsuit states.

Tomerlin was arrested after the incident and charged with evading police and driving while his license was suspended or revoked, according to court records. Tomerlin pleaded no contest to misdemeanor evading in April 2022 and was sentenced to 6 months in jail. The suspended license charge was dismissed.