The State : S.F. to Pay Blind Woman

San Francisco city officials have offered a $17,312 settlement to pay a blind woman for her humiliation after she was forced by a policeman to clean up after her guide dog. Raygena Harper, a 25-year-old stockbroker, sued the city over the September, 1985, incident. She said she would accept the settlement offer from the city attorney’s office, which also must be approved by the Board of Supervisors. The officer, Aaron Barnes, a 22-year police veteran, said, “I was just doing my job. . . . I didn’t know she was blind and that it was a guide dog.” However, Harper said she told Barnes five times that she was blind, “but he would not relent.” Barnes, who said he suffers high blood pressure and went on unpaid sick leave in 1986, said he had not realized then that blind people using guide dogs are exempt from the law requiring dog owners to make use of pooper-scoopers.