Couple blame Modesto police for his arrest at SF airport, want city to pay up

A husband and wife want Modesto to pay them after they say he was wrongly arrested as they were waiting to board an overseas flight from San Francisco International Airport because Modesto police had failed to notify a statewide database that a protective order against the man had been lifted.

San Francisco attorney Alexander J. Perez filed claims against Modesto on March 18 on behalf of the man, Hari Pal Jr., and his wife in which they each seek at least $25,000.

A protective order was placed against Pal in 2009 to stay away from his wife as part of his pleading no contest to felony battery in Stanislaus County Superior Court. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

The order was good for 10 years, but a Stanislaus County Superior Court judge lifted it in 2014 at Pal’s and his wife’s request. An attorney for Pal wrote in court papers that Pal had served his prison sentence, completed domestic violence court, as well as his parole, and had remained employed.

The Modesto Police Department, as the arresting agency, was required to notify the California Domestic Violence Registry that the order had been lifted but did not, according to the claim. It states Superior Court notified police the order had been removed the same day the judge lifted it.

Now fast-forward several years: Pal and his wife were at the San Francisco airport Sept. 18 waiting for their flight to Dubai for a vacation when federal Customs and Border Protection officers told them there was a protective order against Pal barring him from being with his wife.

Customs and Border Protection vets international travelers. Two San Francisco police officers then arrested Pal despite his objections that the order was no longer valid. He was booked at the San Mateo County Jail, where he was in custody for about five hours until posting $15,000 bail, according to the claim.

The officers “arrested Mr. Pal and handcuffed him in full view of his wife and the public gathered at the airport, thereby subjecting Mr. Pal and (his wife) to public humiliation and moral opprobrium,” the claim states.

Because of the “Modesto Police Department’s failure to enter the Order terminating the Protective Order, Claimant Hari Pal Jr. was unlawfully arrested,” according to the claim, “... and (incurred) monetary damages in the loss of money expended on his pre-paid vacation, his vacation time, and was forced to pay bail to get out of jail.”

Pal, his wife, and their attorney did not respond to requests for comment. The Bee is not naming Pal’s wife.

Police Chief Galen Carroll said he would not comment on the claim’s allegations but said his department is investigating what happened and “if we find that changes need to be made, we will make them.” He also expressed his sympathies. “We feel bad for the parties involved,” he said.

He added that the protective order has been removed from the statewide database.

A San Francisco spokesman did not respond to a request regarding whether Pal and his wife have filed claims against that city over its officers’ actions.