After White Cops "Declared War" on Latino Man, PBSO settles excessive force suit for $125,000

From [HERE] As a 38-year lawman, Luis Rodriguez says he’s convinced Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies acted like a “uniformed gang,” not police officers, when his family, fearing he was suicidal, called for help in 2009.

The deputies opened fire, then turned one of their dogs on him, he said.

“Instead of coming out and helping me, they declared war,” he said of events that unfolded at his suburban West Palm Beach house seven years ago. “They attacked me and my mother. We’re lucky we’re alive.”

Despite his strong belief that his civil rights were violated, he agreed on Tuesday to accept $125,000 from the Sheriff’s Office to settle a lawsuit that was to go to trial in U.S. District Court this week.

“All I was going to do was extend the civil ligation and put my family through it even further,” he said of why he accepted such a small amount to settle the lawsuit that his attorney, Val Rodriguez, had predicted could have produced a multimillion-dollar verdict.

While agreeing to pay Luis Rodriguez, sheriff’s officials didn’t admit wrongdoing. They declined comment about the agreement. In the past year, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has settled roughly a half-dozen excessive force lawsuits for a total of about $4 million. He is also appealing a $22.4 million verdict in another case of a shooting by a deputy.

“As a general policy, the Sheriff’s Office does not comment on any legal settlements because each case has its own set of unique legal complexities and issues,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said in a statement.

The problem, said both Rodriguez and his attorney (who is no relation), is that state law is stacked against those who challenge the actions of the Sheriff’s Office or any other government agency. By law, damages against government agencies are capped at $200,000. In 2009, when Luis Rodriguez was shot at by deputies and attacked by a sheriff’s dog, the limit was $100,000.

To get more than the state cap if he won a big verdict, Rodriguez would have to persuade the Florida Legislature to pass what is known as a claims bill, lifting the cap in his case. But even before going through what is often a fruitless legislation process, Bradshaw would likely appeal any unfavorable verdict, pushing any resolution of the case even further away.

“What that does,” Luis Rodriguez, 59, said of Florida’s sovereign immunity law, “is allow an agency … to go out and readily use deadly force as a first response and then move on without any consequences.”

Further, an appeals court said he couldn’t pursue Lt. Richard Burdick, who oversaw the operation, for civil rights violations, only Deputy Christopher Wolf, who was the dog’s handler. The decision further weakened the case that had already been hurt when a federal district judge said Bradshaw couldn’t be sued for civil rights violations, lawyer Val Rodriguez said.

Luis Rodriguez, who is an officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said deputies could have easily defused the situation, which began when he had a bad reaction to a sleeping pill, prompting his family to call 911.

Instead of talking to him calmly to relieve his anxiety and fears, dozens of sheriff’s deputies — including the SWAT team and snipers — surrounded his house in a neighborhood off Okeechobee Boulevard just west of Florida’s Turnpike, Val Rodriguez said in court papers. They fired at Luis Rodriguez — once when he came out of the house with his elderly mother. Deputies called him on the phone, taunting him to “finish it,” the attorney wrote.

The stand-off ended when Luis Rodriguez emerged from his house with his hands raised and deputies unleashed a police dog that sunk its teeth into his thigh, breaking his leg and severing his femoral artery. Deputies claimed they believed he was armed and his mother was being held hostage — claims Luis Rodriguez and his attorney called unfounded.

Originally charged with several counts of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, including the canine, Luis Rodriguez eventually pleaded no contest only to disturbing the peace. Adjudication was withheld and the file sealed. Temporarily suspended from his job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he said he lost 27 months of pay and valuable seniority.

Because he is unable to take narcotics, he said he has spinal surgery each year to deal with ongoing leg pain. He said the actions of the deputies violated basic police procedure — rules he teaches law enforcement officers throughout the world as an international instructor and adviser on law enforcement techniques. 

The experience, he said, soured him. “I was dumbfounded, distraught and brokenhearted,” he said. “I realized I lived in a bubble. I really believed in law enforcement officers — that you could trust 99.9 percent of them. I still believe the majority of the officers at PBSO are good officers who have integrity. But 2 percent are bad officers. That’s too much.”