No Right to be Left the Fuck Alone: Cedar Rapids Settles Case with Black Homeless Man for $50K. Suit said White Cops Allowed a Police Dog to “Viciously Attack Him" while He Slept Under a Picnic Table

 From [HERE] City officials have agreed to pay $50,000 to settle one of two lawsuits filed against the police department involving a police dog who attacked a homeless man in 2018.

The city on Tuesday approved the “compromised settlement without admitting liability” to Howard T. Cones, according to lawyer Mark Liabo, who represented Cones.

Cones, who was homeless at the time, filed the lawsuit in June, asserting he was sleeping under a picnic table around midnight July 12, 2018, in Poets Park, 1200 17th St. SE, when Ace, a police dog, “viciously attacked him.”

Liabo said Cones’ right elbow was “torn open,” wounds that required 12 stitches at Mercy Medical Center.

“Fortunately the wounds healed, but he has been left with scarring and some nerve pain or sensitivity in the elbow area,” Liabo said.

The lawsuit stated Ace, his K-9 handler Officer Nathan Trimble and two other officers came to the park that night to do a training exercise for the dog. Ace was required to smell a scent and find an object.

The dog was released but, rather than finding the intended object, he attacked Cones, the lawsuit stated, which claimed the officers were negligent in failing to properly train and control the dog.

The city initially denied the allegations and asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Liabo told The Gazette in June the police report said Trimble noticed Ace had a distinct change in behavior when he was about 35 yards out and then he saw Ace jump on a picnic bench.

Ace attacked Cones, who was lying on the ground beneath the bench. Trimble ran over and removed Ace, Liabo said.

In their report, the officers — Trimble, Amy Shuman and Craig Fangmann — said they were unaware Cones was in the park. He was not a suspect and didn’t do anything to provoke the dog, they said.