LIHUE — A farmer is suing the Kauai Police Department and one of its officers, who, according to a lawsuit, placed the man in handcuffs and knocked him to the ground, fracturing his spine and causing nerve damage.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu arose from an incident on the evening of Jan. 30, 2018, when Roy Gal was fighting with a bunch of pigs.
Gal lives on a farm in a secluded, rural area of the island, where, according to his civil complaint, he “had serious issues” with feral pigs eating his crops, baby goats and sheep. In order to eradicate the animals, Gal got a permit from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and often stayed up at night to keep the pigs away from his livestock.
“On this night, just like many other nights around this time of year when there are a lot of baby farm animals, Mr. Gal stayed up and waited to see if there were any pigs threatening his herds,” the lawsuit says.
At around 9:45 p.m., a group of pigs came to his farm. He fired at the group twice, and when one of the pigs charged him, he pulled out his handgun and shot at it several times. The pigs weren’t done and neither was the farmer.
“Mr. Gal again got attacked by a pig,” and again he fired around four rapid shots, the complaint says. After the second pig attack, Gal was too afraid to try to find them in the dark and gave up for the night.
Ten minutes later, Kauai police officers arrived at the property, pushed through the gate and approached the residence, where Gal came out to greet them “with the true belief that they would just ask him if he had fired shots, check his paperwork and leave,” according to the suit.
Gal had his pistol tucked into the waistband of his pants, so when one of the officers asked if he had a gun on him, he responded, “always.”
That’s when police then took Gal to the ground and placed him in handcuffs, a tactic that was entirely unnecessary, according to the complaint, which says the officers “could have and should have simply and politely” asked him to turn over the weapon.
“KPD police officers could have easily just put Mr. Gal’s hands behind his back and handcuffed him,” the lawsuit says, “and even that was not necessary,” because he was neither verbally or physically hostile or aggressive.
While he was on the ground, Gal spoke with the police for a few minutes, and the conversation became contentious, according to the suit, when Gal insisted that he had the right to be armed on his own land.
The complaint says one of the officers aggressively stood Gal up and forcefully walked him outside the gate to his property, where he forced him to take a couple steps backward and “purposely tripped him with his left foot,” pushing Mr. Gal to the ground.
Gal, still handcuffed, had no ability to break his fall, and when he hit the ground, the complaint says he “felt a terrible sharp burning” in his lower back, rib cage and neck. The officers checked Gal’s gun permits and animal-eradication permit, took his cuffs off, returned his belongings and left.
Gal was not arrested or charged with anything, but his lawsuit alleges he suffered serious physical and emotional damages during the altercation with police.
In the complaint, Gal lists numerous, permanent injuries caused by the incident, including a fractured spine in multiple locations and nerve damage resulting in randomly tearing in the eyes, erectile dysfunction and “random, no-reason sweating, tingling feet,” leaving him in “constant, severe pain.”
According to the lawsuit, Gal’s injuries have left him unable to enjoy his regular activities, like farming, hunting, fishing, running, soccer, fixing his tractor and truck, tending to his animals, working a chain saw, picking up his kids, and “having normal sexual relationship with his wife.”
A spokesperson for the police department declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cloehrer@thegardenisland.com.
KPD is the biggest joke on the island.
Sue those rogue trigger happy cops, take them to the cleaners. Clean out their personal accounts and sue them big time in civil court. Lazy cops could have just run a gun permit check on their computers via the patrol car, but did not and decided to do a “John Wayne” on him.
when the officers arrived you came out of your residence with a visible pistol coming out of your pants and your answer was always?
As well your shooting at night was off the charts, u can kill em in the day time on your ag land, but not at night.
The officers viewed you as violating the law, openly armed, and a smart a##.
Your law suit is frivolous, and you need to learn about proper firearm handling, you could’ve shot off your privates with the loaded weapon in your waist band you fool, then having sex with yourself would be out of the question.
I mean seems like he was not doing anything illegal since they didn’t arrest him…
The man didn’t have a holster on him to place the weapon. so, it was common sense to holster it in the waistline of his pants. He also did not reach for the weapon and or, point it to the KPD Officers, and was in full compliance with the police.
With that said, there was abusive force used by the KPD Officers.
Not a matter of abusive force by KPD. It is safety precautionary measures taken by officers. It is never wise to approach officers with a gun on your waist. Combine that with a not-so-friendly attitude, resistance, and hostility, however slight, and chances are physical force will be used. As a rule of thumb, obey the officers’ commands, cooperate with his orders and be polite, and all will go well.
Talk about a problem with the pigs!!!
There are several dozen KPD, COK, state Judiciary, politically motivated accountings of pure terrorism. The regime has been busted and we are not going away, so there is going to be a very exciting capitol building senate/house opening and most of those that have become criminals will be seated in uniform, suit n tie, mu’umu’u, and kauai pointy finger expoly. Kapu Aloha, Unfortunately, ther will be no circus, because the monkeys nose is bleeding.
Debra K, really, several dozen county employees terrorism? What the heck does terrorism have to do with the police rightfully responding to gunshots? What other evidence of terrorism do you see here? You need to quit smoking that stuff.