Siccing K-9 for long duration constitutes excessive force, judge rules in Brentwood police bite case [Video]

Ordering a police dog to bite a person doesn’t necessarily constitute excessive force, but siccing a K-9 on a person for a long time does, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled. 

That was Monday’s decision by U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin in the case of Tamilka Bates vs. Brentwood police officer Ryan Rezentes, whose dog Marco clamped down on the young woman’s scalp for roughly a minute as she hid in the bushes after stealing thousands of dollars from a nearby Ulta store. 

Lin said it was OK that Rezentes had his dog bite Bates in February 2020. But she ruled that the officer cannot claim qualified immunity in this case, specifically citing the duration and the location of the dog bite that left Bates with traumatic brain injury.

The head is a “uniquely vulnerable part of the body,” the judge wrote. 

The judge’s order also noted that Rezentes did not give any warning that he had …