California Woman Wins Nearly $1M After Scalp Ripped Off by Police Dog

A California woman whose scalp was ripped off by a police dog has been awarded a nearly $1 million settlement.

Talmika Bates was attacked by the police dog in February 2020 after being pursued by Brentwood Police Department officers for stealing merchandise from an Ulta Beauty store in San Francisco’s East Bay community. Officer Ryan Rezentes, now retired, used his 85-pound German shepherd dog Marco to search for Bates, who was hiding in a bush.

“The canine came from behind and bit onto the back of Bates’s head, pulling and dragging her backwards onto the ground,” court documents read. Rezentes had not officially given Marco any command other than to search the bush before the dog began biting Bates.

Despite Bates verbally surrendering herself to officers by shouting “please get your dog, I’m coming out!” the dog did not let go. When Rezentes entered the bush and found Bates, he did not respond to pleas for the dog to be removed. After a minute of Marco being sicced on Bates, the officer had to manually force the canine away from her.

Court documents say that, due to the attack, “significant portions of Bates’s scalp were torn off, exposing her skull.” She was left with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, surgeons reattached her scalp tissue using more than 200 stitches.

Now, following a lawsuit filed by Bates, the city has paid her $967,000. U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin ruled that ordering a police dog to bite a person doesn’t necessarily constitute excessive force; however, siccing a dog on a person for a long time does.

“To avoid further litigation and appeal costs, the City, through its insurance providers, agreed to settle a civil lawsuit filed by Ms. Talmika Bates,” a statement from the department reads. “This settlement was obtained while this matter was on appeal in the Ninth Circuit on the issue of qualified immunity for the involved officer, retired Brentwood Police Department Officer Ryan Rezentes.”

Bates’s attorney Adante Pointer told KLTVU that “K-9s are potentially lethal weapons and police must be held accountable when they are misused.”

Pointer added: “Ms. Bates was almost killed because of how the police callously sicced the dog on an unarmed woman. The injuries Ms. Bates suffered are forever life-altering.”

Speaking about the ordeal to KTVU in 2022, Bates said: “I really thought I was going to die. I really didn’t think that I was going to be able to tell this story and really explain to nobody. It’s just traumatizing. It’s just sad.”