OXNARD : Claim Filed Over Police Dog Attack

A claim for damages filed last week against the city of Oxnard is the third time in as many years that the city has faced a legal battle stemming from alleged biting incidents involving a police dog named Max.

Anthony Orlando Mack, 30, said in a claim filed last week that he was mauled by Max on May 26 when police went to his house on the 2000 block of Sanford Street to respond to a reported domestic dispute.

The claim, a legal move required before a lawsuit can be filed against the city, does not say how much money Mack wants in compensation. But his lawyer, Gary C. Faucette, said Mack spent 10 days in the hospital and continues to receive medical treatment for the bites he suffered on his arm.

Faucette said Mack’s arm is disfigured by the “major ripping and tearing” he suffered. The claim also alleges that during the incident, police used racially derogatory language against Mack, who is black.

Police officials declined to comment on the claim, in which Mack acknowledged that he was involved in a dispute with his two sisters but said he never posed a threat to the dog or police officers.

Last month, a Superior Court jury awarded $58,840 to the family of a boy who was attacked by Max, a 90-pound malinois, in 1988. An attorney for the city said the city was responsible for the attack on Wesley Eaton, now 5, but argued that the damage to the boy and his family was minimal.

In September, Aaron Person, 23, filed a $5,000 claim against the city, alleging that he was attacked by Max when police arrested him for resisting arrest.