Dominic Esquibel, Navy Cross recipient, in legal tiff with Park Service

John sends us a link to an article about Dominic Esquibel, a Marine who earned the Navy Cross in Iraq in 2004 and was roughed up by a National Park Service forest ranger in a dispute over a Sequoia National Park handicap parking space. According to Esquibel, the park employee handcuffed him and mistreated the handicapped Marine in front of his family, says the Fresno Bee;

Dominic Esquibel, 42, of San Diego, is suing for assault and battery, false arrest and false imprisonment, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, said his attorney, Nicholas “Butch” Wagner of Fresno.

His civil-rights complaint, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Fresno, does not specify how much in damages he is seeking. But a claim sent to the U.S. government prior to the lawsuit said Esquibel wants $750,000.

You know that the first thing I did was check the DoD list of Navy Cross recipients. Esquibel isn’t there, but he is at the Military Times Hall of Valor. So I wrote to our buddy, Doug Sterner and asked for a clarification. Doug says that Esquibel declined the award, probably the first recipient in history (besides Rafael Peralta’s mother), according to Sterner, because Esquibel didn’t feel right accepting the award when so many had died in the engagement, so DoD didn’t include him on their website list. But Doug says that he has the citation;

For extraordinary heroism while serving as Scout Sniper, Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom on 25 November 2004. After an enemy ambush on 3d Platoon nearby, Lance Corporal Esquibel quickly moved to an overwatch position and spotted five wounded Marines in a building courtyard. He courageously low-crawled close to the enemy stronghold to gain intelligence and then ran through the rooftops under intense enemy fire to relay the intelligence to the 3d Platoon Commander. With total disregard for his own safety, he re-occupied his position and threw a grenade, destroying several enemy insurgents and silencing one of the enemy’s machine guns. After eliminating part of the threat, he low-crawled to another area and dropped a grenade through a hole in the roof, eliminating several more enemy personnel and silencing another enemy machine gun. As a tank breached the courtyard wall, 3d Platoon began suppressing the target building. He seized this opportunity and quickly moved to the courtyard while under enemy machine gun fire, dragging out a wounded Marine. He re-entered the courtyard to retrieve a second wounded Marine. Still under enemy fire, he moved through the open area a third time, extinguished a fire that had mortally wounded the third casualty, and swiftly carried out his body. Due to his heroic efforts, two Marines survived the devastating enemy ambush. By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, Lance Corporal Esquibel reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

According to the Bee, this is what led to the lawsuit;

Esquibel parked in a handicap space so he could use the restroom. He placed his handicap placard on his rear-view mirror and began walking from his vehicle when the park employee at the entrance booth yelled at him: “You can’t park there.” When Esquibel said he was disabled, the park employee replied: “I can see that you’re not,” the lawsuit says.

The park employee called a park ranger, who arrived a short time later and began questioning Esquibel. The complaint says the ranger, identified in court papers only as T. Parker, demanded that Esquibel show him a handicapped driver’s license. Esquibel told the ranger he did not have or need one to drive his vehicle. He offered to show the ranger the paperwork for the handicap placard, but the ranger was unwilling to listen, the lawsuit says.

The ranger arrested Esquibel for failing to follow a lawful order, the lawsuit says. Esquibel says his war-related injuries, which included a surgically repaired right arm, were made worse by the ranger’s forceful arrest and from being handcuffed.

Why do we even have doctors when we can just take vets to the park rangers so they can evaluate whether people are disabled or not?

According to the Bee, Esquibel was wounded again in Afghanistan and that he continues to serve in the Marines as a criminal investigator.

From another local news source;

Category: Marine Corps