Ex-Building Supply President Sued For Domestic Violence Unusual Federal Suit Seeks Civil Damages

The former president of a Spokane-area building supply business is being sued for domestic violence in a unique federal lawsuit.

The suit filed Tuesday seeks recognition of domestic violence as grounds for civil damages in state courts in Washington state.

The suit also seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages under the federal Violence Against Women Act.

Reid T. Ziegler, former president of Ziegler Lumber Co., is accused of 10 years of domestic violence by his estranged wife, Michele Ziegler.

The suit, filed by Spokane attorneys Dick Eymann and John Allison, levels several allegations of violence and psychological abuse.

Her children from a previous marriage, Luke and Journee Ziegler, also are named as plaintiffs.

Reid Ziegler’s attorney, Mary Schultz, said the abuse allegations “are complete garbage.”

Schultz said the couple are involved in a divorce and child-custody battle in Spokane County Superior Court. The file in that case is sealed and parties are under court orders not to discuss the divorce proceeding.

“The federal complaint is completely without merit,” Schultz said. “She’s bringing this at a very critical time in the custody and divorce action.”

Reid Ziegler is seeking sole custody of the couple’s daughter.

He was vacationing in Hawaii and not available for comment.

His father, Vern Ziegler, who has resumed the title of company president, also wasn’t available for comment.

The suit claims that Michele Ziegler was regularly battered by her husband and lived a “life of shame and secret horror” before leaving him in December 1995.

She frequently hid her bruises and other injuries by wearing sunglasses and loose-fitting clothing, the suit says.

When she was eight months pregnant, the suit alleges, she was pushed out of the couple’s car traveling 20 to 25 mph. “Her body struck the pavement and rolled several times,” the suit says.

On another occasion, it contends, her husband threw a hammer at her, narrowly missing her head before striking a wall.

Another time, he choked her until she lost consciousness, the suit claims. When she awoke, her husband was giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

At first she thought she was being kissed. But then her husband resumed screaming and continued the abuse, the suit alleges.

He also pointed a loaded gun at his wife’s head and threatened to kill her and the children if she left him, the suit claims.

“The defendant had a routine habit of slowly and deliberately explaining to Michele precisely what he would do if she ever tried to escape the marriage,” the suit says.

“In very matter-of-fact terms, the defendant told Michele that he first would kill each of the children in front of her, then kill Michele” before committing suicide, it says.

The suit doesn’t list specific damages.

It asks the court to award her compensation for medical expenses, and damages for pain, suffering, “future loss of enjoyment of life,” lost earning capacity and punitive damages.

Michele Ziegler deferred comment to her attorneys.

Eymann said Michele Ziegler represents a “long-ignored problem” of domestic violence.

“It is time for our judicial system to recognize, address and provide a civil remedy for people like her,” he said.

Under current law, victims of domestic violence must sue for each assault, rather than for a continuing pattern of abuse.

State tort claims for domestic violence can be filed in Idaho and a handful of other states, Allison said.

“Now it’s time for the law in Washington to catch up,” Allison said. “Women who suffer repeated abuse by the men who supposedly love them need to know they can count on the civil justice system as a weapon for fighting back.”

, DataTimes