A lawsuit has been filed by Rosa Ramirez against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department after a K-9 unit dog bit and permanently disfigured her hand, as detailed in a press conference covered by ABC7. The incident, which occurred at Ramirez's home on February 22, 2023, has sparked demands for the disbandment of the department's K-9 unit due to the severity of her injuries.
According to a KTLA report, the 45-year-old's left hand—her dominant one—was crushed when she opened her door to converse with a sheriff's deputy, and the dog, weighing between 50 to 65 pounds, attacked her even though the department maintains that it uses canines under "strict guidelines." Attorney Colleen Flynn described the injuries as typical of those inflicted by police dogs, explaining that "the department has tolerated these dogs inflicting disfiguring, disabling, life-changing injuries."
Ramirez, according to the ABC7 article, is asking for the case to be taken to trial where a jury could decide on the damages. Colleen Flynn condemned the use of sheriff's dogs, trained to bite and stating, "Ms. Ramirez is an innocent mother. She was attacked by an unleashed sheriff's dog trained to bite anyone it encountered." The legal team is not just seeking compensation but about policy change, for the sheriff's department to cease utilizing dogs for suspect apprehension.
Scrutiny toward police dog units has increased recently, especially after a "find and bite" patrol dog mauled Ramirez outside her front door, taking a considerable chunk of flesh from her hand, necessitating multiple surgeries and a skin graft; details provided in a Los Angeles Times piece. Ramirez's attorney Flynn criticized the historical use of canines for suspect detention saying, "They evade accountability by blaming the dog, and since the dog doesn’t have human judgment they just treat it as an accident,” Flynn told The Times.
Investigations by non-profit news site The Marshall Project and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California have highlighted the lack of oversight in police dog programs and their disproportionate use on individuals in mental health crises. Ramirez's lawyers argue that the attack not only caused her debilitating injury but also disrupted the search for the original suspect, who ultimately was not caught, as revealed in the Los Angeles Times report.
