A homeless man living in Honolulu, Hawaii was coerced into licking a urinal by a police officer amid fears he would be arrested, court documents have revealed.
The man, identified only as S.I., was told by Officer John Rabago to kneel and lick the urinal in January 2018, an incident which Rabago later laughed about with fellow police officers.
The humiliating act was uncovered on Wednesday when court documents were made public after a former officer pleaded guilty to failing to report the incident.
The reports also allege that this incident wasn’t the first of its kind – Rabago had previously threatened another man he had been questioning with arrest unless he stuck his head into a toilet.
“It makes no difference whether you’re a prince or a pauper, policeman, prosecutor or the president of the United States. Everyone is accountable and no one is above the law,” said Myles Breiner, an attorney representing the homeless man.
Breiner said his client is currently incarcerated for a parole violation in a drug case.
Rabago, who remains on restricted duty, and Reginald Ramones, who left the department in August, were arrested and charged earlier this year with depriving a man of his civil rights.
Rabago has pleaded not guilty.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, Ramones on Wednesday pleaded guilty to a lesser charge that he knew Rabago committed a civil rights violation but didn’t inform authorities about it.
Ramones said in court that Rabago persuaded him not to tell authorities what happened in the public bathroom, told him to say he was joking when he talked about the urinal incident and to delete their text messages about it.
Ramones had maintained both men were innocent during meetings with their lawyers, said Rabago’s defense attorney Megan Kau, who said that Ramones had never mentioned either bathroom incident during the meetings.
“I think he got scared and he’s now saying things he wouldn’t necessarily have said before,” Kau said.
Rabago still intends to go to trial in March, she added.
Ramones faces up to three years in prison when he’s sentenced in February.