Officer sicced K-9 on woman, then dog tore off her scalp, suit says. Now, she gets $1M
A woman whose head was mangled by a police dog — leaving her needing surgery to reattach her scalp — will receive nearly $1 million after she sued the California officer handling the K-9, her attorneys announced.
Brentwood police officer Ryan Rezentes sicced his K-9 Marco on Talmika Bates, who was suspected of shoplifting from a local Ulta Beauty store, while she was hiding in bushes on Feb. 10, 2020, according to her federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit accused Rezentes of ignoring Bates’ screams and allowing the dog to bite and attack her head, resulting in pieces of her scalp getting torn off.
When he eventually started commanding the dog to “heel,” the K-9 wouldn’t let go until Rezentes physically intervened, resulting in Bates being attacked for more than a minute, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“When Ms. Bates emerged from the bushes, the top of her head was bloody and mangled with large chunks of her scalp missing,” the complaint says.
She needed more than 200 stitches to her head, according to her attorneys.
“Here we saw a trained K-9 handler stand by while his dog mauled an unarmed young lady who was surrendering,” attorney Adanté Pointer said in a statement. “Using a dog to exact street justice doesn’t make the abuse of someone’s civil rights any better — and we want our police to do better.”
The city of Brentwood agreed to pay $967,000 to settle Bates’ lawsuit, her attorneys, of Oakland-based Pointer & Buelna, Lawyers For The People, said in a Nov. 15 news release.
Brentwood Police Chief Timothy Herbert said in a statement provided to McClatchy News on Nov. 18 that the city agreed to settle the case “to avoid further litigation and appeal costs.”
The settlement was reached “while this matter was on appeal in the Ninth Circuit on the issue of qualified immunity” for Rezentes, who has since retired, according to Herbert.
About six months ago, a federal judge ruled that the amount of time Rezentes let the dog maul Bates’ scalp could possibly be viewed as excessive force and partly denied him qualified immunity, Bates’ attorneys said.
Rezentes, however, had legal authority to use his K-9 in trying to arrest Bates, the judge also ruled, according to Herbert.
Bates is one of multiple suspects who are accused of stealing from Ulta Beauty and leaving the store in a car, which then crashed into a police patrol vehicle, Herbert said.
The car was left in a field and Bates, along with the others accused of shoplifting, ran off and hid from authorities, according to Herbert, who said Bates was on probation at the time.
After Rezentes’ dog found and attacked Bates, she was taken to a hospital, Herbert said.
Bates was found guilty of misdemeanor theft and resisting and obstructing and/or delaying a peace officer, according to Herbert.
Following the surgery to repair Bates’ scalp, she has been diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, mild post-traumatic brain syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder, her attorneys said.
According to Herbert, K-9’s aren’t currently being used by his department.
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Officer sicced K-9 on woman, then dog tore off her scalp, suit says. Now, she gets $1M."
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