Son battled officers; now mom fights suit - deputies seek $8 million from widow

**Corsair** · August 10th, 2008, 10:01 AM

Crime & Public Safety - Son battled officers; now mom fights suit - sacbee.com

Hopefully you can see this story; it's waaay too long to cut and paste. A year ago, a mentally ill man shot his father, then was killed in a shootout with El Dorado County, CA, police. Now two of the three officers are suing the WIDOW (mother of the mentally ill man) for 8 mil??? They are getting hammered in the comments. This is from the Sacramento Bee website.

here's a snippet:

In their lawsuit, Yaws and Murphy allege the Mies family was negligent in failing to control their troubled son Eddie, behavior that led to the gunbattle and their injuries. Yaws was wounded in the arm, chest and leg; Murphy was struck once in the leg.

In addition to their physical injuries, the suit alleges the deputies suffered anxiety and humiliation.

Such lawsuits by police officers are highly unusual – and hard to win, according to several experts in tort law. They point to a long-standing legal tenet called "the firefighter's rule," which generally precludes emergency workers injured in the line of duty from suing citizens.

"With the firefighter's rule, the reasoning is that they voluntarily agreed to undertake these risks – they know going in that fighting crime or fighting fires is dangerous," said Julie Davies, a professor at McGeorge School of Law. "Additionally, they are paid well to encounter the risks. They're given a whole packet of benefits to compensate them if they're injured, so allowing them to sue citizens would almost be like double taxation."

Davies said there's another consideration, as well: "If people worry that they might be sued by police officers or firefighters, they might hesitate to call on them for help. And that would be bad public policy."

another snippet; a comment from the deputy that is NOT suing:

"I went through my own hard times, and I did some soul-searching," she said. "My job was to protect that day, and that's what I did. That's the risk I took – and I know the price I paid. I cannot imagine what Karen Mies went through, burying a husband and a son."

Meekma said she's made her peace with Eddie Mies.

"Part of my healing was to forgive Eddie Mies," she said. "He was very sick – he needed help, too. … I had nightmares for a while. When I decided not to be part of the lawsuit, my nightmares stopped."

**Folieadeux** · August 10th, 2008, 01:45 PM

I can only imagine it must have been horrific if they are all so affected that they have, until recently been experiencing nightmares... but this is wrong. I do think given the fact many criminals can sue police, the police should be able to sue them to. But this woman isn't a criminal. She's a woman grieving the senseless loss of her husband, and the loss of her son!

I think the lawsuit certainly has weight; particularly on the issue of negligence, because a reasonable person would be able to foresee the dangers of allowing gun access to a schizophrenic BUT this man was an ADULT. He could have secured his own access to guns, and if he didn't murder his Father with a gun, it could have been with a knife or his own bare hands.

8 million (4 million EACH) is outrageous and disgusting. This woman has lost her husband and son, now I expect the suit will see her lose her home too? I hope these dick heads lose in court and have to pay ALL legal fees.

**dolem** · August 11th, 2008, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by Corsair

"With the firefighter's rule, the reasoning is that they voluntarily agreed to undertake these risks – they know going in that fighting crime or fighting fires is dangerous," said Julie Davies, a professor at McGeorge School of Law. "Additionally, they are paid well to encounter the risks. They're given a whole packet of benefits to compensate them if they're injured, so allowing them to sue citizens would almost be like double taxation."

Davies said there's another consideration, as well: "If people worry that they might be sued by police officers or firefighters, they might hesitate to call on them for help. And that would be bad public policy."

another snippet; a comment from the deputy that is NOT suing:

"I went through my own hard times, and I did some soul-searching," she said. "My job was to protect that day, and that's what I did. That's the risk I took – and I know the price I paid. I cannot imagine what Karen Mies went through, burying a husband and a son."

Meekma said she's made her peace with Eddie Mies.

"Part of my healing was to forgive Eddie Mies," she said. "He was very sick – he needed help, too. … I had nightmares for a while. When I decided not to be part of the lawsuit, my nightmares stopped."

I'm not sure how it works in CA, but I know in Oregon if an officer or a fire fighter is injured on the job they are paid very very well during their time off for recovery. We've had one of our friends tell us that he wishes he'd get injured (just slightly) so that he would get some paid vacation time for a while.

Sounds like the officer that is not suing has her head on straight. She understands the risks you take when you become a police officer.

Sad story, I feel very badly for Karen Mies, what an awful tragedy.

**Corsair** · August 11th, 2008, 04:36 PM

Since this is close to home, I'll be keeping an eye on it. Unfortunately this particular county has this sort of reputation (I live in the county next door). I recall an officer in Florida did this after responding to a drowning, she slipped and fell or something. As I recall, she ended up dropping the suit. Hope the public reaction to this ends up with the same result.