A Washougal man received $1.785 million Friday in punitive damages, attorney fees and interest to end a lawsuit stemming from 2003 when he was mistakenly bitten by a Kennewick police dog.
A satisfaction of judgment was filed in U.S. District Court on Friday resulting in a wire transfer to Ken Rogers, said Diehl Rettig, one of his lawyers.
"It brings a long case to the end," Rettig said. "(The Rogers) are just thankful it's finally over."
The case began July 13, 2003, when Kennewick police were looking for someone riding a Moped without a helmet or headlight. Rogers, who was in town at the time to fish and visit family, was asleep in a back yard on West Victoria Street.
Deke, a Kennewick police dog, followed a wrong scent into the yard. Believing Rogers was the suspect, Deke latched onto him and in the struggle bit him several times on the hand, back, neck and face while three officers beat him.
Rogers said he fought back because he wasn't wearing his glasses and thought he was being attacked by prowlers. His innocence was never questioned during the lawsuit.
He suffered permanent nerve damage to his left hand -- and he is left-handed, hearing loss in his right ear and mental anguish and anxiety. The attack also aggravated a disabling back injury.
Rogers sued on the grounds that his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizure were violated when the officers allowed a police dog to enter the fenced backyard where the man was sleeping and attack him.
A jury in 2007 decided that the officers acted maliciously or in reckless disregard for his constitutional rights.
In 2008, a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal case, brought by Rogers against the city of Kennewick, Benton County and four law enforcement officers.
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