A Costa Mesa man is suing the city of Newport Beach and its police department over being mauled by a police dog he claims was released near a garage where he was sleeping.
Usyel Ocampo Roman, 34, wants his medical bills and other expenses covered and an undetermined amount of damages in the complaint filed Oct. 10 in Orange County Superior Court.
]
The cops from Newps were apparently assisting in the search for baddies on Coolidge Avenue in Costa Mesa around 3 a.m. March 17 when the police dog is alleged to have rushed in through an open garage door and “bit, clawed and scratched” Roman, who had been sleeping, according to the complaint.
He allegedly suffered cuts, bruises, other wounds and much pain to both of his arms, according to the complaint, which finds the dog's handlers negligent because they did nothing to prevent the attack and had no permission to enter the garage.
The city, which previously rejected a claim filed by Roman, is mum about the pending litigation.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.