Former UC Davis police officer awarded $38K
Lt. John Pike, left, attempts to maintain control over the crowd after he pepper-sprayed students on the UC Davis quad on Nov. 18, 2011. Pike was recently awarded a $38,000 workers’ compensation settlement due to trauma suffered during and after the event.
By Daily Bruin
Oct. 23, 2013 7:17 p.m.
A former UC Davis police officer who pepper-sprayed seated demonstrators in a controversial 2011 incident will receive more than $38,000 for psychiatric injuries he claimed to have suffered in the event’s aftermath.
In November 2011, a YouTube video of former UC Davis police department’s Lt. John Pike pepper-spraying nonviolent Occupy protesters on the UC Davis campus went viral, arousing public outrage.
Pike, who was fired in July 2012, submitted a workers’ compensation claim saying he suffered from anxiety and depression due to the way he was treated after the incident.
A doctor from California’s Disability Evaluation Unit confirmed Pike’s claims of psychiatric injuries, which resulted from “continuous trauma” from Pike’s employment at UC Davis, according to a document from the California Division of Workers’ Compensation.
Pike will receive a total of $38,055.79 in workers’ compensation, according to the document.
“Like any other employer, UC Davis is required to follow the California workers’ compensation process,” a spokesman for UC Davis said in a statement. “This case has been resolved in accordance with state law and processes on workers’ compensation.”
In January, a federal judge ruled that the University of California Board of Regents must compensate $30,000 to each of 21 protesters involved in the pepper spray incident.
Compiled by Kristen Taketa, Bruin senior staff.
