A former Oneonta police officer is now looking to sue the city and police chief, alleging that he was wrongfully fired after a fellow officer accidentally shot him during a shootout two years ago.
Ryan Pinyan was an experienced K-9 officer and patrolman at the time of his injury.
On a November morning in 2023, police were dispatched to Sand Valley Road on reports of a suspicious person. Upon approach, the suspect fled into the nearby woods, where a shootout ensued.
AL.com’s reports of the incident from the time detail that the suspect was eventually killed in the gunfight, but this wasn’t the only casualty.
Court documents also detail that “one of the officers for the city of Oneonta ... inadvertently shot Ryan Pinyan in his right leg from behind which resulted in Plaintiff Pinyan spending seven days in the Intensive Care Unit at UAB.”
Police did not initially disclose who shot Pinyan during the exchange of gunfire with the suspect.
Pinyan spent an extended period in the hospital, dealt with multiple surgeries and received worker’s compensation, according to court records.
Filed on Feb. 28, Pinyan’s attorneys submitted a complaint to the Blount County Circuit Court seeking damages for his wrongful termination. The document names the City of Oneonta, Oneonta Police Chief Charles Clifton, and three unnamed individuals as defendants.
More recent court records show that the city has motioned for the case to be transferred to federal court.
The court case documents claim that months after the shooting, on his way to be a witness in a grand jury hearing in Blount County, Pinyan was stopped by Oneonta Police Chief Charles Clifton.
The documents then detail that Pinyan was forced to sign a stack of worker’s compensation checks, acknowledge his ‘Garrity’ rights, and was then questioned concerning “his relationship with certain single women and certain married women and appeared to be trying to allege that plaintiff Pinyan had mistreated them or had some type of relationship with them.”
Garrity rights protect public employees from being compelled to incriminate themselves in internal investigations.
Pinyan was then terminated from his position, in violation of due process, his lawsuit claims. Pinyan lost his car, weapon and badge without any clarification on what he did wrong, according to the lawsuit.
Pinyan and other tenured public employees are legally entitled to written or oral notices of the reason they are disciplined, the lawsuit claims.
The court documents detail the effects of the wrongful termination. Pinyan’s constitutional rights to due process were violated, he incurred mental anguish and had financial, and emotional harm “as a direct result of the actions of the defendants and its agents.”
The lawsuit also asks that Pinyan receive the money he personally raised for his K-9 dog’s treatment, that he be reinstated to his prior position, and other damages.
Pinyan had been allowed to keep the dog after he was fired but not the money he had raised for the dog’s treatment.
His K-9, Boogieman, was injured in an on-duty incident, according to the still-listed GoFundMe. According to the court records, Pinyan personally raised over $10,000 for Boogieman’s treatment but was not allowed to keep any of it following his termination.
Requests from AL.com for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation reviews and reports on the shooting incident were deferred to the Blount DA’s office. The DA’s office deferred to the Blount Circuit Court Clerk’s Office who have yet to respond to the request for further information.
Attempts to reach lawyers for both Pinyan and the City of Oneonta have been unsuccessful.