$240,000 Settlement To Help Man Pay For Police Dog Bite

A $240,000 settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by a man whose leg was broken when he was bitten by a police dog as he tried to help officers catch three car thieves.

Much of the settlement will go to pay medical bills from four operations and other treatment, and the rest will go toward retirement, said James Kienast, 35, a Pierce Transit driver whose case was set for trial next Monday in U.S. District Court.

Rocky, a rottweiler, bit Kienast after officer Dan Hensley, the dog’s handler, mistook him for one of three car thieves following a crash near the bus driver’s home.