Mailman says he never pepper-sprayed the dog in the federal trial over the asthma claims

SAN DIEGO (CN) – What started with a family dog ​​barking at a mailman has escalated into a trial in federal court, where a U.S. Postal Service employee on Monday denied allegations that he sprinkled repeatedly with pepper dogs and exposed two young children to chemicals that caused asthma.

Attorneys representing the Galindo family and their two children presented video evidence of Nestor Medina, a mail carrier, walking to and from the family’s home in the border community of Otay Mesa, Calif., and apparently pepper-spraying the dog. Other videos showed a small white dog, Pupa, curling up on the ground and touching his face.

In many of the videos shown Monday, Medina delivers the family’s mail while holding a small can of pepper spray while Pupa barks at him on the other side of a metal gate.

Plaintiffs contend Medina was unnecessarily and frivolously pepper-sprayed while he was delivering the mail. The children, who regularly played with Pupa and slept next to her in their beds, developed asthma as a result of exposure to the pepper spray, they argue.

“Unfortunately, there was collateral damage to two very young, very innocent children who developed asthma, which changed the course of their lives,” attorney Zachary Wallace, of Casey Gerry LLP, said in an opening statement. “That’s what this case is about: the changed trajectory of these kids’ lives.”

However, Justice Department lawyers say the children developed asthma symptoms through repeated viral infections common to children and were otherwise in good health.

“The evidence will show as the children got older, they got sick less often – that the children lead active, normal, healthy lives,” said Assistant US Attorney Matthew Riley. “What the evidence will show is that the likely cause of the respiratory problems was repeated exposure to the disease over a long period of time, not the pepper spray.”

The Galindo family sued the federal government for negligence in 2023. Monday marked the first day of a jury trial presided over by US District Judge Janis Sammartino, appointed by George W. Bush.

Attorneys took turns examining how Medina delivered the mail — from his steps, to the direction of his shoulders — in several videos of the Galindo family’s home security system captured in February and March 2019. In the videos where Medina is not visibly holding the pepper spray, the dog did not appear to have a reaction Monday, the defendants said.

Medina later admitted to his supervisor, Ruth Littrell, who also testified, that he had pepper-sprayed the dog once. However, DOJ lawyers said this admission was only made in an attempt to settle the case and was not made under oath.

It’s standard practice for mail carriers to bring pepper spray to prevent dog bites, Medina said.

Medina was later fired with postal service and remained unemployed for almost a year. During that time, his family experienced financial hardship, including repossessing their vehicles.

“My kids and I had to go to food banks just to get something to eat,” he testified. “We had to take our kids away from the sports they love because we couldn’t afford it anymore.”

He fell into depression as a result of losing his job, he said, adding that he and his family have been harassed by the media.

Through arbitration, Medina regained his job as a mail carrier.

The children’s parents also testified in court.

Medina’s videos are limited to a month-long period in 2019, but the father, Alfonso Galindo, suspects the pepper-spraying incidents date back to at least the fall of 2018.

Galindo said she had been seeing unidentifiable splatter patterns on their patio floor for months.

“I started to connect the dots,” he told the court. “I couldn’t believe it. It was a whirlwind of emotions and anger.”

The plaintiffs’ lawyers also showed court evidence of the loving relationship between Pupa and the Galindo children, who were about 1 and 3 years old at the time they became ill.

“The dog is part of the family,” said the father. “Wherever the children are, the dog follows them.”

Both parents said their children have continued to suffer from a recurring cough and similar breathing problems today.

In an emotional testimony, the mother, Ana Galindo, said that the first months of the children’s illnesses were extremely difficult for the family because they did not know what was happening to them. The children were in and out of urgent care and emergency rooms, she told the court through a Spanish interpreter.

Although the children had been sick in the past, this was different, Ana Galindo said. Both children were coughing in a way that disrupted their sleep, especially their daughter, she said.

But government lawyers pointed out that medical records show both children’s conditions have improved in recent years, and there is no mention of asthma in the medical records submitted as evidence.

Lawyers are expected to call medical professionals to testify in the coming days of the trial, which Sammartino said is expected to last until Thursday.