The court has made its decision in the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office’s request to dismiss many of the complaints in a lawsuit stemming from the 2022 shooting of Jason Harley Kloepfer at his home near Murphy.
“The court denied a few things I thought it might grant and granted a few things I thought it might deny, but overall it’s right where we expected the outcome to be,” said Ellis Boyle, attorney for Kloepfer and his wife Alison Mahler, also a party in the lawsuit.
Kloepfer was seriously injured in the Dec. 13, 2022, shooting that occurred after a neighbor called 911 claiming she was concerned that he had hurt Mahler. Citing a potential hostage situation, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance from the Cherokee Indian Police Department’s SWAT team, which arrived in the early morning hours. Despite the CCSO’s initial statement to the contrary, home security video shows Kloepfer coming to the door with his hands up, in compliance with police orders. However, as he stood there three CIPD officers fired their weapons at him, severely injuring him and narrowly missing Mahler.
In June, Kloepfer and Mahler filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina seeking millions in damages, and a special prosecutor is currently considering findings from the State Bureau of Investigation to determine whether criminal charges are warranted. The lawsuit named 31 defendants, including 17 associated with the CCSO.
Read the full story on theSmoky Mountain News.
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Department responded to the motion in this Smoky Mountain News article.
