Miami Standard (San Jose, CA) –  San Jose has reached a settlement of $1.6 million with a man involved in a tequila theft incident, during which he was bitten by a police K-9 for a duration of one minute. This marks the second largest K-9-related compensation in California.

On Tuesday, the city council reached a decision regarding the compensation for Anthony Paredes, who suffered severe injuries, including a shredded windpipe and fractured thyroid cartilage, during a brief dog attack, as stated by his attorney, Izaak Schwaiger.

Schwaiger noted that there was only one other K-9 case in California that resulted in a larger sum – $2 million – and that incident involved a fatality.

“This is the largest non-fatal excessive force K-9 case in state history,” Schwaiger told KTVU on Wednesday. “I hope it’s enough to force San Jose to make serious reforms.”

In 2023, Jason Anglero-Wyrick received a substantial settlement of $1.35 million after an incident involving a Sonoma County sheriff’s dog that caused significant injury to his calf. Following that, in November 2024, Tamilka Bates was awarded $1 million due to a severe injury inflicted by a Brentwood police dog, which resulted in the loss of part of her scalp.

An investigation spanning from 2018 to 2022 has uncovered that the police in San Jose utilise K-9 units more frequently than any other law enforcement agency in the Bay Area, resulting in 167 bites over a five-year timeframe.

In this incident, authorities in San Jose deployed a K-9 to apprehend Paredes, who fled from a Safeway on February 7, 2020, where his girlfriend faced allegations of stealing $350 worth of tequila. In an attempt to evade capture, he concealed himself by jumping into a garbage can.

The SJPD sent their German shepherd, Tex, to capture him.

Footage captured by a body-worn camera reveals the harrowing incident, with blood smeared across Paredes’ face as the dog violently shook its head.

Tex is observing as Paredes endures a neck bite for a full minute.

According to documents from a federal lawsuit, Officer Michael Jeffrey, who handled police dogs, was ultimately removed from the K-9 unit.

During the proceedings, it came to light that Tex had not complied with verbal commands on at least 22 occasions, contradicting Jeffrey’s sworn statement in his court declaration that the K-9 had “never failed to release a bite in the field.”

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