59-year-old man mauled to death by a pack of dogs

Dog Bites

man in California was mauled to death by a pack of dogs on Sunday, the Selma Police Department said in a press release. When police arrived on scene, an individual was attempting to separate the dogs from the 59-year-old victim.

First aid was administered and the man, who has not been identified, was taken to a hospital, where he died, the department said. The number of dogs involved or type of breed was not specified.

The dogs escaped from a nearby residence and attacked the man while he was walking through the neighborhood, investigators learned. The person who tried to help the man was also bitten by one of the dogs and suffered a minor injury.

The dogs were captured by officers and are being quarantined. The owner of the dogs is cooperating with officials. CBS News has reached out to the Selma Police Department for further information.

In 2020,

San Francisco settles suit over police beating for $700,000

Police Brutality

The city of San Francisco will pay $700,000 to settle a lawsuit over the brutal beating of a Black man by a baton-wielding police officer who now faces criminal assault charges.

Dacari Spiers sued the city in February 2020 for civil rights violations, false arrest, battery, negligence and supervisor liability. He claims officer Terrance Stangel, who is being prosecuted for assault and other charges, beat him without justification.

Spiers suffered a broken wrist and leg, which required surgery, along with several lacerations that required stitches. He was forced to use a wheelchair during his recovery.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a former public defender who has vowed to hold officers accountable for misconduct, charged Stangel in December 2020 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, assault under color of authority and battery with serious bodily injury.

The proposed $700,000 settlement was posted on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Feb. 1 meeting agenda Friday. The board must approve the deal before it can be finalized.

Spiers’ lawyer Curtis Briggs said he believes the settlement is fair, but added the beating was traumatic for his client and emblematic of more widespread problems within the San Francisco Police Department.

City pays $135,000 to settle police dog attack lawsuit

Police Brutality

The city of Palo Alto paid $135,000 to a man who was bitten by a police dog while he was innocently sleeping in a backyard, according to a settlement agreement released today (Jan. 5).

In exchange for the payment, Joel Alejo will release the city of all liability from the incident.

It’s the fifth lawsuit related to police misconduct that Palo Alto has settled since February 2016, amounting to $1,282,500 including the Alejo case.

The settlement stems from a dog attack on June 25, 2020, at 1847 Elsie Ave. in Mountain View that hospitalized Alejo with gashes on his leg.

Alejo was sleeping in his family’s backyard while police were searching for a kidnapping suspect around 2:30 a.m.

Palo Alto Agent Nick Enberg responded with his German shepherd. He entered the property through the side gate and came across Alejo laying down in a shed.

Enberg then ordered his dog in Czechoslovakian to bite — “dirsh” — and he repeated the command over 30 times while Alejo yelled and tried to get the dog off of him.

Alejo turned out not to be the person that police were looking for. He was taken to the hospital with exposed fat cells and damaged nerves, according to his lawsuit.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen didn’t file charges against Enberg, who still handles a police dog, according to a September police report.

Bay Area couple’s $86 million jury award in Roundup pesticide case stands

Roundup

California’s highest court rejected on Wednesday a challenge by Monsanto Co.’s to $86.2 million in damages to a couple who developed cancer after spraying the company’s Roundup weed-killer in their yards for three decades.

The state Supreme Court’s denial of review upholds an appeals court’s ruling in favor of Alva and Alberta Pilliod.

The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco found in a 2-1 ruling in August that Monsanto was at fault for knowingly marketing a product whose active ingredient, glyphosate, could be dangerous.

Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, said it disagreed with the high court’s decision.

“We continue to stand strongly behind the safety of Roundup, a position supported by assessments of expert regulators worldwide as well as the overwhelming weight of four

Lawsuit accuses Tucson priests of sexually abusing minors in southern Arizona

Catholic Sexual Abuse

A third victim has come forward in a federal lawsuit accusing Catholic priests of sexual abuse of minors across southern Arizona in the 1970s and 1980s.

Initially filed in December, the lawsuit claims that the Tucson Diocese and Los Angeles Archdiocese covered up abuse and moved priests around instead of reporting them to law enforcement.

The racketeering lawsuit was filed following a change to the Arizona Child Victims Act, which increases the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual abuse from age 20 to 30 and allowed adults older than 30 to file claims up until Dec. 31, 2020.

Just before the December deadline, hundreds of civil lawsuits were filed in Arizona courts by people who said they suffered abuse as children in Arizona