The daughter of a decorated Vietnam veteran has sued the New Orleans Police Department, claiming her father died last year after a police dog, sent into his 9th Ward home by officers investigating a burglary, bit him and the wound became infected.
According to the lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court: Lionel Samson, a retired Army sergeant who had received a Purple Heart, died Jan. 19 of multisystem organ failure stemming from the dog bite and ensuing infection and pneumonia.
The NOPD disputes the claim. Samson "died from a natural disease. The dog bite to the left leg had no evidence of underlying abscess formation or necrosis," said Capt. Marlon Defillo, the department's spokesman.
Citing confidentiality, the coroner's office on Friday would not provide a precise cause of death, but chief investigator John Gagliano did say that Samson died of natural causes not linked in any way to the dog bite.
According to the lawsuit, the series of events that ended with the dog bite began Jan. 4, 2002, when an alarm on Samson's bedroom window sounded, and the alarm company called police. Officers Jean Smith and Valerie Kees were dispatched to the house shortly after 12:30 a.m., the lawsuit says.
Mary Howell, the attorney for Toya Green Lazard, the daughter, said Friday that the officers had arrived at Samson's house soon after he confronted two unidentified men who had broken into his home then left.
The police report says the officers spotted a man inside the house and announced their presence, but the man ducked down. Not knowing whether he was armed, the report said, they summoned backup, including officer Bret Pittman and his dog, a male Belgian Malinois named Bronco.
Police say Samson did not respond to several orders to come out of the house or to their announcement that a police dog was present. DeFillo said that before removing Bronco's leash inside the house, Pittman made several announcements about the dog. Samson told officers who interviewed him afterward that he had not come out of the house because he feared the burglars had returned and were pretending to be police to get him to come out.
"It should be noted that Mr. Samson had been drinking 'whiskey' and continued to drink his 'whiskey' while officers were interviewing him," the police report said.
But Howell said Samson, who was drinking in the privacy of his own home, ended up being victimized twice: first by the burglars, then by police. The lawsuit says police violated Samson's civil rights by sending the dog into the house when Samson posed no threat.
Defendants include then-Police Superintendent Richard Pennington and acting Superintendent Duane Johnson. They are accused of approving use of dogs that amounted to excessive force. Samson's daughter also accuses police supervisors of approving a police report that she says misrepresented what happened.
According to that report, Samson's neighbors told police they thought no one was at his house because he had told them he was going to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center the next day. One neighbor told police Samson was going there to be operated on for a leg injury he sustained while in the Army, the police report said.
Howell, however, said neighbors dispute what the police reports have them saying.
Howell said Lazard's case raises serious questions about the NOPD's policy on use of dogs and underscores the need to prevent another serious bite.
"It's our understanding that the NOPD uses a 'find and bite' policy, which has really fallen into disregard," she said. "A number of police departments have switched to 'find and bark': You find the individual, the dog circles and barks," biting only if the person attacks or takes evasive action, she said.
DeFillo said NOPD has "strict guidelines as it relates to use of force, which is inclusive of actions by one of the dogs. The force has to be reasonable, and once the individual is in custody, then the force eases."
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Susan Finch can be reached at sfinch@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3340.
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