Homeless man forced to lick urinal in Hawaii. Now an ex-cop is going to jail for it
A former police officer was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty to civil rights violations for forcing a man to lick a urinal in Hawaii.
U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi sentenced John Rabago, an ex-Honolulu cop, to four years in prison, according to The Associated Press. “You took from him his only possession: his dignity as a human being,” Kobayashi said, according to the outlet.
In January 2018, Rabago told Samuel Ingall, “If you lick the urinal, you won’t get arrested,” according to The Washington Post. Another police officer held the door so they wouldn’t be caught, according to the publication.
Ingall agreed to lick the urinal so he wouldn’t have to go jail, the publication reported.
Ingall used the public restroom frequently but one day, the police were called for a trespassing complaint, Hawaii News Now reported in 2018. Ingall said that the officers forced him to sit in urine before shoving his head into the toilet and holding him in the water, according to the publication.
“He was forced to essentially do something that’s disgusting,” Myles Breiner, Ingall’s attorney, told KHON in 2019. “His face was forced into a urinal. The police officers thought this was amusing. It wasn’t as though he was doing anything illegal but they chose to do this to him because he was vulnerable.”
Rabago said that his remarks were a joke but Reginald Ramones, the other officer involved in the case, pleaded guilty in September 2019 and said he would testify against him, The Washington Post reported. Rabago pleaded guilty in December 2019, according to the publication.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Brady said Rabago had denied the incident happened and initially joked about it, according to The Associated Press.
“To be homeless, not knowing where your next meal is going to be, to be forced to lick ... a dirty urinal by a uniformed police officer. There’s only one word that comes to mind: hopelessness,” Brady said, The Associated Press reported.
Rabago apologized for his actions, according to USA Today.
“Two years ago I made a decision I’m not proud of,” he said, according to the publication. “My actions changed the course of life for all of us.”
Ingall sued Honolulu and the city’s police department in February, The Associated Press reported.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Homeless man forced to lick urinal in Hawaii. Now an ex-cop is going to jail for it."