A former law enforcement officer in Hawaii was sentenced to 4 a long time in jail Wednesday for forcing a homeless person to lick a urinal to avoid being arrested.
“I’m listed here to judge you on the worst detail you’ve performed in your daily life,” US District Decide Leslie Kobayashi explained to the previous Honolulu cop, John Rabago, at his sentencing.
“You took from [that man] his only possession: his dignity as a human remaining,” Kobayashi advised Rabago.
Rabago, 44, and an additional officer, Reginald Ramones, experienced responded to a nuisance grievance at a buying mall in 2018 when they discovered the gentleman in a stall in a public restroom.
The 37-year-outdated informed the cops he would do “anything” to keep away from getting arrested, according to courtroom papers.
“If you lick the urinal you won’t get arrested,” Rabago explained to the person.
Rabago threatened to defeat him and shove his confront in a toilet if he didn’t lick the urinal, Kobayashi reported.
The two officers experienced been charged with depriving the gentleman of his civil rights.
Ramones, who also still left the department, is scheduled to be sentenced subsequent week.
At Wednesday’s sentencing, Rabago apologized to the target and his family members.
“Two many years in the past I manufactured a selection I’m not happy of,” he mentioned. “My actions altered the training course of life for all of us.”
The gentleman, who submitted a lawsuit in opposition to the Honolulu Police Office and the town, was “pleasantly surprised” by the four-year sentence, his attorney, Myles Breiner, reported.
“He was below the impact that they would coddle him and give him a minimum term, a extremely low sentence,” claimed Breiner.
With Article wires
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