Son Battled Officers; Now Mom Fights Suit

Year after Shingle Springs shootout, deputies seek $8 million from widow

By Dorothy Korber - dkorber@sacbee.com A carved post and a boulder mark the place where Eddie Mies gunned down his dad last year on the family's rustic homestead in Shingle Springs.

Up the hill a little farther, among the dusty pines and chaparral, stands another wooden post and a cairn of smaller rocks. This is where Mies, who was 34, died of bullet wounds from the ensuing gunbattle with El Dorado County deputies.

Three deputies and a police dog also were hit in the firefight that morning; all survived.

The bloody date was June 5, 2007. Karen Mies, staggering under the news that her son had murdered her husband, told a family friend she was grateful for one thing: The wounded deputies were alive.

One year later to the day, two of the deputies filed a civil lawsuit against the widow and the estate of her deceased husband, Arthur, and her son. Officers Jon Yaws and Greg Murphy – both recovered and back at work – each is suing the Mies family for $4 million for emotional distress, medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, and punitive damages.

Given her modest circumstances, the 66-year-old hospice nurse says their $8 million claim would be laughable – if the whole situation were not so heartbreaking.

"June 5 was a tragic day for me and my family, and it was a tragic day for the deputies who were injured," Karen Mies said. "We were all victims that day. But this lawsuit is victimizing our family again. What do they want? My husband's dead, my son's dead. Do they want my house and my 10-year-old car?"

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."

Clients advised not to talk

Yaws and Murphy are represented by Sacramento lawyer Phillip Mastagni, whose family law firm works for police unions across Northern California. Mastagni declined to let his clients be interviewed. He also said he would not discuss the case in detail.

"The lawsuit speaks for itself," Mastagni said. "But I just want to say this: We are confident that the firefighter's rule will not bar the claim."

Filed in El Dorado Superior Court, the lawsuit claims that Eddie Mies should have known that he was "afflicted with certain mental health conditions" that would result in dangerous and violent behavior.

It also states his parents knew or should have known that it was "necessary to avoid allowing Eddie Mies access to firearms," and were negligent in allowing him that access.

In addition to Eddie Mies and his parents, the lawsuit also names his brother Jacob as a defendant. It states that Jacob Mies misled the first officers who arrived at the scene by not immediately informing them that Eddie had killed his father.

Many of the claims cited in the suit are disputed by the Mies family.

The suit alleges Eddie Mies was a diagnosed schizophrenic – not true, according to his mother. She said his mental problems were undiagnosed because he resisted treatment.

"He began showing unusual symptoms and fears about six years before he died," she said. "We tried several times to have him evaluated – we even talked him into going to the emergency room a couple of times. The first time, a doctor talked to him for about five minutes. The next time, a 2-year-old was screaming in the waiting room and Eddie bolted."

The suit also claims the family should have known of "Eddie's mental illness, drug abuse, criminal history, paranoia and propensity for violence."

The criminal history, according to Karen Mies, amounts to traffic arrests in Reno and Wyoming.

'He was gentle and kind'

As for foreknowledge of violence, she said her son was clearly depressed but there was nothing to indicate he would snap. She contends the family had no reason to be wary – and that Eddie's murder of his father shows they were not.

"Eddie never appeared to be a danger to himself or anyone else," she said. "That would have been legal grounds to have him committed, but it never reached that point. He was gentle and kind."

The suit, which claims the deputies were the victims of a well-planned ambush, contains this depiction of the shootout's aftermath: "Eddie Mies was found dead in a bunker with a cache of weapons and ammunition, as well as a change of clothes. A survey of the property revealed an elaborate system of bunkers and tunnels."

This description leaves Karen Mies shaking her head. Her responses: The two weapons he used – a shotgun and a revolver – were guns he owned legally as an adult. The ammunition cache was an old toolbox holding bullets, birdshot and other odds and ends. The change of clothes was a jacket.

As for the bunkers and tunnels, Karen Mies led a walking tour of her 2 1/2 acres. She and Arthur raised their six children here; Eddie, the second youngest, was 2 when they moved in.

It's a typical foothills property – a small blue house on Shingle Road, a garden, several pickup trucks in various states of repair, quiet except for wind chimes and the bark of a distant dog. A neighboring property of similar size recently sold for $250,000.

American flags and patriotic ribbons decorate the fence in support of U.S. troops – Art Mies, who was 71 when he died, was a proud Air Force veteran.

Karen Mies walked past the memorial to her husband at the spot where he was sawing firewood when Eddie shot him in the back. She led the way up the hill, through dead corn that Eddie had planted near the small travel trailer where he was living the last year of his life.

She stopped at a wire fence on her property line and pointed to a shallow depression in the ground.

"There were a couple of holes up here where the kids used to play – they've been here for years," she said. She nodded toward a trail that wound away through the brush. "There are trails like that through the grass. When I read 'tunnels' and 'bunkers' in the lawsuit, I couldn't believe it."

Ballistics tests aren't finished

An official investigation of the incident might yield some answers. More than a year later, however, the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office still has not issued its findings. Ballistics tests by the state Department of Justice – to determine who shot whom – are also not finished.

Last month, the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department rejected The Bee's written request for results of its investigation into the Mies case.

Asked to comment on the deputies' lawsuit, Sheriff Jeff Neves sent an e-mail response: "A sheriff's employee is exercising his individual rights as a citizen and in doing so does not officially represent the department in any way."

Bill Clark, El Dorado County's chief deputy district attorney, said his office has been too busy to wind up the case. There have been three other deputy-involved fatal shootings in the county since Eddie Mies' death.

"There's just too much pressing stuff," Clark said. "I've read the results of the Mies investigation, I have an opinion on it, but I have to check the facts."

Greg Murphy now works for the El Dorado District Attorney's Office as an investigator. Jon Yaws is back at work as a deputy sheriff. Donder, the injured police dog, retired from service and is now "spoiled rotten," according to Melissa Meekma, who was the third deputy wounded that day.

Meekma's shoulder was shattered when a shot penetrated the seam of her bullet-proof vest. Healed physically but still struggling with post-traumatic stress, she took a medical retirement from the Sheriff's Department, effective June 30. She is 28.

Her own trials have made her sympathetic to the plight of the Mies family, Meekma said, and she has declined to sue them.

"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."

Mom tries to understand son

Karen Mies says the loss of her husband of four decades – "my good guy" – is a constant ache. But it's the riddle of her son that haunts her.

"Eddie's life was tragic and sad – he was battling these demons, but he couldn't see that he had a problem and we couldn't get help for him," she said. "My consolation was that by living here with us, we knew he was safe. There was a warm, dry place in winter. He had food to eat.

"Parents want to fix things for their kids – it's hard when you can't fix it. So you hope and pray."

She stood in reverie near the family's memorial for Eddie. Here he died of his wounds after firing on an army of police for nearly an hour.

Does she ever think of moving away from the ghosts on Shingle Road?

"No," she said, a little surprised by the question. "I belong here."

COMMENTS:

Cali4niaRags at 12:27 AM PST Sunday, August 10, 2008 said:

Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

Weren't the deputies doing their job when they went to the Mies' home? Ummm....I'm very confused.

4 out of 6 people found this comment helpful.

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Son Battled Officers; Now Mom Fights Suit

Year after Shingle Springs shootout, deputies seek $8 million from widow