Seattle SWAT member seeks $5 million in lawsuit over training injury

Dwayne Pirak injured his knee completing a "hazardous" obstacle course on orders from a captain named in another workplace safety suit settled for $1.3 million.

SWAT team member Dwayne Pirak is suing the City of Seattle for $5 million in damages related to knee injuries he sustained during a fitness evaluation in 2022, according to court records. Pirak is arguing the City is liable for the condition of the obstacle course, which he describes in his claim as “poorly maintained” and “hazardous.”

Pirak was first injured on the course in May 2022 when he tore his right patella tendon, requiring surgery. In his claim filed to the City’s risk management department, Pirak wrote that his team stopped using the obstacle course shortly after his injury “due to a long history of physical injuries by police officers” on it.

However, Citywide Response Section Capt. John Brooks reinstated the obstacle course in July. On the advice of his lieutenant, Pirak skipped the subsequent evaluation in August to fully recover from his injuries, but Brooks ordered him to take it in October.

While running the course, Pirak claims that he stepped in a hole “covered by debris” with his left foot, and his knee “buckled and popped,” then transferred his weight to his right knee, which had been operated on months earlier, and it also ruptured.

Questionable damages

According to the claim form, Pirak had surgery on both knees, follow-up visits with his doctor, and physical therapy, but his actual economic damages are likely no more than $100,000—far short of $5 million.

Between both injuries, Pirak missed a little over half a year of work. Department rosters show that he went on leave in May 2022 and returned to work in the first quarter of 2023. Pirak took home $177,000 in 2022 and worked 1700 hours. By comparison, he made $229,000 in 2021 and $242,000 in 2023. Factoring in backpay under the police guild contract, that’s roughly $70,000 in lost wages.

And with SPD’s generous healthcare benefits, Pirak’s surgery and treatment costs are minimal. The most expensive health plan for police officers has an individual out-of-pocket maximum of $2,000.

While Pirak’s legal team claims he “continues to suffer pain, stiffness, and other ongoing problems with his knees,” his high workload when he returned to duty undermines his claim to an award based on pain and suffering. He logged 2,160 hours the following year.

Furthermore, Washington State generally doesn’t allow punitive damages against municipalities except in a narrow set of circumstances. Even then, they max out at three times the actual damages. Given these facts, the $5 million Pirak is asking for is ambitious.

A payout precedent?

Pirak’s lawyers may believe they can get a higher payout because Capt. Brooks is involved. Brooks was a key player in a workplace safety lawsuit that yielded a $1.3 million jury award. Sgt. David Hockett, the plaintiff in that suit, was a whistle-blower who sounded the alarm for years about dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in the West Precinct parking garage from SUVs left idling.

Brooks, then a lieutenant, called Hockett a “problem child” because of his advocacy and told him, “If you ever want to go anywhere in this Department, you need to lay low.” When Hockett emailed Brooks about the constant harassment he was receiving from other officers and his documented health problems, Brooks ordered him to stop monitoring CO levels and suggested he transfer to another precinct.

It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison to Pirak’s claim. While doctors testified that exposure to carbon monoxide caused Hockett significant health problems, the negligence portion of his claim only accounted for less than a tenth of the jury award. The jury granted him $1 million for the hostile work environment Brooks and Hockett’s coworkers created.

While there was a solid case that Brooks, at the very least, turned a blind eye to Hockett’s medical issues, safety complaints, and his coworkers’ bullying, Pirak’s lawsuit is a straightforward personal injury claim that hardly involved Brooks at all. In its affirmative defense, the City stated that Brooks ordered Pirak to undergo the required training to be deployable as a SWAT team member under SPD policy and argued that Pirak failed to make any claim that his civil rights were violated under color of law.

Still, the City Attorney’s office has been generous in its settlements with Seattle police officers recently. Last year, the City paid out $1 million to Domingo Ortiz, an officer who was struck by an SPD vehicle in a parking garage and seriously injured.