Parents of Boy Mauled by Lion File Suit Against 10 State Agencies

The parents of a boy mauled by a mountain lion in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park last year filed a lawsuit Wednesday against 10 state and federal agencies and the Audubon Society. The lawsuit alleges that the agencies, including Orange County, encouraged people to visit the park but failed to adequately warn them about or protect them from mountain lion attacks.

Such attacks could have been predicted had county employees provided competent wildlife management at the south county park, the suit charges.

Justin Mellon, then 6, of Huntington Beach was mauled by a lion on Oct. 18, 1986, seven months after Laura Michele Small, then 5, of El Toro was the victim of a similar attack in the park.

According to papers filed with the suit in Orange County Superior Court, Justin has suffered severe mental and emotional injury as a result of the attack, in which he received lacerations to the head and body.

The family’s attorney, Richard Staskus, filed administrative claims last year of $6 million for the boy and $14.5 million for his parents, Ann Forgy and Timothy Mellon, and other relatives. The claims were denied, paving the way for the suit filed Wednesday.

County officials had clear notice of the mountain lion danger, the lawsuit claims. These included the Small attack on March 23, 1986, an attack on a forest ranger in Caspers in August, 1986, and reports from park visitors the day before Justin was attacked that a lion had stalked and confronted a family in the park, according to the suit.

The suit claims there were at least 10 other mountain lion sightings in the park area before the boy was attacked.