San Diego parents seek $800K from USPS over pepper spray exposure they say left children with asthma

SAN DIEGO (CN) — The parents of two young children in San Diego County are demanding almost $1 million from the U.S. government after they say a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier repeatedly pepper sprayed their family dog, resulting in asthma diagnoses for their son and daughter.

Attorneys representing the Galindo family and the government presented closing arguments to U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino during a bench trial on Thursday morning.

Debate has revolved around the nature of the two children’s illness. While the government has pointed to a variety of possible reasons for the asthma diagnosis, the plaintiffs say there is a simple explanation.

“These kids are glued to the dog, and the dog is glued to the kids,” attorney Jason Evans of Casey Gerry LLP said during closing arguments. “Not every relationship to pets is the same. This one is clearly special. It was just never thought the dog could be some source of toxin.”

Regina and Alfoncito, then aged about 1 and 3, respectively, developed a severe cough between the fall of 2018 and March 2019, the parents say. Video surveillance presented in court shows that USPS mail carrier Nestor Medina regularly delivered mail to their home in the border community of Otay Mesa during this period and, plaintiffs say, frequently sprayed the dog through the gate with a small can of pepper spray.

Video surveillance played during the trial showed the family’s small white poodle mix named Pupa writhing on the ground after mail deliveries from Medina.

Medina, who testified last week, said he never pepper sprayed the dog, despite previously admitting to it during a professional review at the Postal Service.

Evans accused Medina of lying under oath.

In a video shown during closing arguments, Evans showed the court surveillance footage of the children playing with the dog after it was purportedly pepper sprayed.

“The dog is still in distress,” Evans said, pausing the video as the dog rubbed her face on the concrete floor. “This is over an hour after the spray. Why would the dog rub its face in the ground if there is still no exposure and discomfort to the dog?”

The kids played with the dog and were in close proximity to her every day, he said. Even if the pepper spray was a small amount, it added up over time, he said.

“It’s unreasonable to think a lower exposure on a child’s home on a repeated basis to their vulnerable, developing respiratory system would have no effect at all,” Evans said, refuting some of the testimony from one of the government’s witnesses, Dr. David Cornfield. “They didn’t know to extricate themselves from the exposure area.”

During testimony, Cornfield ruled out pepper spray as the cause of asthma but refused to rule out things like pollution, cleaning products, marijuana smoke and viral infections.

Evans compared the government’s actions to a cruel experiment on a family that lasted six months.

“We don’t have to overcomplicate this,” he said. “It is time to finally right the wrongs of the Galindo children’s harms and losses.”

Alfonso Galindo, their father, sat in contemplation with his legal team, with one hand on his chin.

Sammartino, a George W. Bush appointee, remained silent throughout closing arguments, except to ask if the damages amount had increased since the beginning of the trial.

The parents are now asking for $800,000 from the government, or $400,000 per child, for past and future damages. That number is double their initial ask.

In his closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Riley took issue with the request for damages.

“That number is untethered to the evidence and wildly inflated,” he said. “If the court were to award any damages, it should be significantly less than that.”

Assuming that Medina did, in fact, pepper spray Pupa, that does not equate to an asthma diagnosis, Riley said.

Riley accused the family’s attorneys of cherry-picking evidence, pointing out that only some of the video surveillance presented in court show Medina delivering the mail and Pupa’s reaction. Some of the videos only show the mail delivery and not the dog’s reaction.

“The court will draw an inference from that missing evidence,” he said.

Riley also disputed the testimony from the plaintiffs’ witness Dr. Douglas Li, whom he accused of changing his testimony during the trial.

The government has maintained that the most likely cause of asthma is repeated viral infections. Riley said the children’s illnesses coincided with their son’s enrollment at a daycare facility.

The family says the children’s illnesses subsided after Medina was removed from the mail route in March 2019, but Riley said that is also about when the cold season ended and when the children began taking asthma medication.

“The evidence shows the children experienced periodic illnesses like other children,” he said. “Alfoncito is fine. He has no problems playing sports or doing things with his friends. He is a healthy child. So is his sister. They’ve gotten sick in the past, as children do.”

The closing arguments mark the end of the trial that began on May 11.

The family first filed the lawsuit against the government in 2023.