San Diego County Pays $6.5 Million to Man Beaten by Deputy and Bitten by K-9 During 2014 Stop
After trial: The jury's $5 million verdict was challenged on appeal, and in May 2025 the Ninth Circuit upheld liability but ordered a remittitur capped at $1.5 million or a new damages trial. The case then settled for $6.5 million, which the settlement filing describes as resolving the damages claim and attorney fee requests together.
Won by Greene Broillet & Wheeler and Other counsel.
Mickail Myles sued San Diego County and Deputy Jeremy Banks over a Sept. 5, 2014 traffic stop near Fallbrook in which he was punched and bitten by a sheriff's K-9. A federal jury awarded him $5 million in October 2022 on excessive force and negligent supervision claims, after the court sanctioned the county for withholding records. The Ninth Circuit upheld liability but ordered the damages cut or retried, and in 2026 the county agreed to pay $6.5 million.
What happened
On Sept. 5, 2014, San Diego County sheriff's deputies pulled Mickail Myles over near his parents' home in Fallbrook. By the account the jury accepted, he was handcuffed and not resisting when Deputy Jeremy Banks punched him and released a police dog that bit him. Two other deputies were holding him at the time, according to local news coverage of the trial.
Myles sued in the Southern District of California in 2015. His claims against the county and Banks included excessive force under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a Monell claim that the county failed to supervise its deputies, a Bane Act claim and negligence. The case took eight years to reach a jury, and much of that time went to a fight over discovery. The district court found that the county had withheld records, among them material showing that Banks had been involved in at least seven other excessive-force incidents since 2015. As a sanction, Judge John A. Houston revived the supervision claim that had earlier been dismissed and told the jury the county had concealed evidence.
Trial ended on Oct. 11, 2022. Jurors deliberated for less than a day and awarded Myles $5 million against the county and the Sheriff's Office. Browne Greene served as co-lead trial counsel for Myles, with Daniel Balaban and Linda Workman.
The county appealed. In a May 2025 memorandum, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of qualified immunity for Banks, writing that no particularized case law is needed to know that setting a dog on a handcuffed arrestee who has surrendered is excessive force. It also upheld the discovery sanctions. On damages, the panel was less favorable. It noted that the trial record showed little lasting physical injury, only small scars from the bite, and that a doctor's suggestion of a brain injury rested on assumptions. It also found that remarks in counsel's opening and closing statements risked inflaming the jury. The court sent the case back so Myles could choose between a remittitur, capped at $1.5 million, and a new trial on damages alone. It vacated a separate fee award for recalculation.
The case did not go back to a second damages trial. In early 2026 the county agreed in a federal court filing to pay $6.5 million, in installments of $3 million and $3.5 million, resolving both Myles's damages claim and the fee requests pending before the court.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Myles v. County of San Diego, No. 3:15-cv-01985 (S.D. Cal.), docket
- 2.Myles v. County of San Diego, Nos. 23-55487 and 23-3198 (9th Cir. May 12, 2025) (memorandum)·Archived copy
- 3.CBS 8, 'Jury awards $5 million to man beaten by San Diego sheriff's deputies', Oct. 2022·Archived copy
- 4.10News (KGTV), 'County of San Diego faces $5 million excessive force verdict', Oct. 11, 2022·Archived copy
- 5.Hoodline, 'San Diego shells out $6.5 million over traffic stop K-9 mauling', Feb. 2026·Archived copy
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