A homeless man who was looking for shelter in a public restroom said that Honolulu police officers humiliated him and forced him to buy his way out of being arrested by licking a urinal in the facility. Samuel Ingall, who sued the city of Honolulu and the Honolulu Police Department last week, said that officers accused him of using an “aggressive tone” before offering him the alternative to jail time in January 2018, according to the suit.
Police officer John Rabago, who was named in the suit, was put on restricted duty and pleaded guilty in December to deprivation of civil rights, the AP reported. The other officer named in the suit, Reginald Ramones, resigned his position in August and pleaded guilty to knowing that Rabago had committed a civil rights violation and not telling officials.
With one of the officers making sure the incident would not be filmed, Ingall, “against his will, knelt before the urinal and licked the urinal," according to the suit. Rabago allegedly laughed and told other officers about the incident afterward, the AP reported. Ramones alleged in court that Rabago convinced him to keep what happened from officials and to delete text messages about it.
City spokesman Alexander Zannes declined to comment on pending litigation, but Rabago’s attorney Megan Kau told the AP Monday that Rabago wasn’t allowed to plead no contest and that the guilty plea “potentially puts the city at risk because of the civil lawsuit.” “I think John made a mistake. He owned up to his mistake. He accepted responsibility, and he entered a guilty plea," Kau told Hawaii News Now. "This is not something happening on a day-to-day basis in the police force. "
Ingall’s attorney, Myles Breiner, however, refuted that claim, telling Hawaii News Now that police officers are “supposed to be vetted sufficiently, and trained sufficiently.” “These officers thought it was another form of amusement because one of these officers had a history of doing this," Breiner said.