‘YOU TOOK HIS DIGNITY’

Ex Hawaii Cop Gets Four Years in Prison for Forcing Homeless Man to Lick Urinal

The judge told the ex officer: “You took from him his only possession: his dignity as a human being.”

A former Hawaii police officer has been sentenced to four years in prison for forcing a homeless man to lick a dirty public urinal. John Rabago, 44, responded to a nuisance complaint in 2018 with a second officer and found the homeless man in a stall inside a public restroom. Rabago threatened to beat the man unless he licked the urinal—then held the man down and stepped on his legs until he licked the toilet, according to U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi. The judge told Rabago at his sentencing: “You took from him his only possession: his dignity as a human being.” Rabago told the other officer who responded to the complaint, Reginald Ramones, to delete texts about what happened. Ramones will be sentenced next week after he pleaded guilty to not informing authorities about the abuse of power. Rabago offered an apology to the victim in court, and added: “Two years ago I made a decision I’m not proud of.”