Cherokee County Police Shooting Victims Win $10 Million Settlement

More than two and a half years after police nearly killed Cherokee County resident Jason Harley Kloepfer, the law enforcement agencies involved have agreed to settle his civil lawsuit for $10 million. The agreement is expected to be finalized within the next month.

It’s a large sum of money, but Kloepfer and his wife Alison Mahler, who was also a plaintiff in the case, aren’t celebrating.

“I look at this as blood money,” Kloepfer said.

The shooting occurred shortly before 5 a.m. on December 13, 2022, after the couple woke to find their home surrounded by officers from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians SWAT team. Officers had responded to a neighbor’s 911 call about an altercation between the couple, though the neighbor later admitted that it had been too dark to see.

Through a loudspeaker, the officers ordered Kloepfer to come outside with his hands up. He complied, with Mahler behind him. Then three EBCI officers fired.

The officers later claimed they had believed a robotic camera, which the SWAT team had sent into the house and which Kloepfer picked up, was a gun.  

They shot Kloepfer in his chest and his arm, cutting through his liver, stomach, and the lining of his heart. He spent a week in the hospital, waking up from his first round of surgeries with 70 staples in his chest, 20 stitches in his arm, and a tube down his throat. The lawsuit he filed in June 2023 named 31 defendants from both agencies and sought millions in damages. 

The tribe’s decision to settle “reflects the careful consideration of many factors,” EBCI Attorney General Michael McConnell said in a statement. “It is not an admission of liability, fault, or wrongdoing. The Tribe supports our officers who daily risk life and limb in the performance of their duties.”

A statement from Cherokee County outlined the terms of the settlement: Both the county and the tribe will pay the couple $5 million, to be covered by insurance. Attorneys for the defendants did not return requests for comment.

After leaving the hospital, Kloepfer was arrested on two misdemeanor counts: communicating threats and resisting a public officer. The sheriff’s office had hoped to charge him with attempted murder, court documents show, but District Attorney Ashley Welch refused. She later dismissed the misdemeanor charges after Kloepfer published footage from his home security camera that contradicted police claims.

“A large component of what Jason and Ali want to come from his case is that other forgotten people who don’t happen to have a camera set up are not falsely imprisoned, falsely accused, and shot for no good reason,” said the couple’s attorney, Ellis Boyle.

In April, Welch also issued a Giglio order against CCSO Detective Milton Teasdale, who, according to court documents, had told her Kloepfer exchanged words with law enforcement and answered the door holding a gun. A Giglio order is a rare measure declaring that an officer’s credibility has been so compromised that their testimony would no longer be considered trustworthy at trial. Teasdale retired April 28, county records show.

None of the officers involved have faced any criminal prosecution. After reviewing the State Bureau of Investigation’s report on the matter, Special Prosecutor Lance Sigmon declined to file charges. In April 2024, The Assembly filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a Bureau of Indian Affairs report investigating the EBCI’s role in the shooting but received notice last week that the request has been denied.

“If they get arrested and they beat the charges, I can live with that,” said Kloepfer. “But without charges even, and they’re not arrested? I’m going to be relentless now that I’ve got this money. I’m going to be going to town with this money.”