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.
Call The Bee's Dorothy Korber, (916) 321-1061.
