FARMER SAYS HE WAS TRYING TO SCARE TEENS

A Perry County farmer claims he was just trying to scare trespassing teen-agers away from his emus.

However, the farmer can't rely on his insurance policy to pay for his assault of two 14-year-old boys whom he caught trespassing on his property, a three-judge panel ruled this week.

If the boys prevail in a lawsuit seeking more than $125,000 from Larry Moll, his personal liability policy with Cameron Mutual Insurance Co. doesn't obligate the company to pay, the Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals decided.

The insurance policy doesn't require coverage of willful actions by its customers, the court's opinion states.

Moll's lawyer, Al Lowes, doesn't think the lawsuit has much chance of success when it goes before a jury in a September trial.

"I think those boys would be better off going to Las Vegas and trying to hit it big," Lowes said.

The boys' encounter with Moll began when they decided to go fishing at a private pond on Moll's farm on July 9, 1996. The two were standing on a 6-foot-long dock when Moll arrived home from work.

Moll had spoken to at least one of the boys about fishing at his pond before, but attorneys for Moll and the boys characterize the encounters differently. The boys' attorneys state in the lawsuit that they had previously been given permission by Moll to fish at the pond. Lowes said the boys ignored Moll's warnings.

"They'd come over there and shoot off twenty-twos like it was nothing," Lowes said. "They had no concept of private property."

Boys confronted

After seeing the boys at the pond, Moll went to his house and returned with a 12-gauge shotgun. He fired a shot into the water, which the boys said landed close enough to splash water on them. Moll later told authorities he walked down to the dock to confront the boys and "teach them a lesson."

When he felt they weren't paying attention to him, Moll struck one boy on the head with his gun and grabbed the other by the throat. He then took a large knife from one of the boys and threw it into the pond.

In an effort to embarrass them, Moll then told the boys to take off all their clothes. When they refused, he asked them if they really wanted to argue with a man holding a gun.

The boys stripped, threw their clothes into the pond, and were marched at gunpoint to Moll's house. They were told to wait in the driveway until he returned with a video camera.

When Moll complained about the boys trespassing before, Perry County sheriff's deputies had told him he had no evidence, Lowes said. This time he decided to make a video.

Moll videotaped the naked boys in his driveway, telling them to speak their names. Afterward, Jean Moll, Larry Moll's mother, called the sheriff's department to report the incident.

Larry Moll eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault charges for grabbing and hitting the boys.

However, the lawsuit claims that Moll's mother and wife, Sharon, also participated in demeaning the boys by forcing them to sit in the driveway while a video camera was found.

The Molls had a right to defend their property, Lowes said, since the boys' trespassing was potentially damaging to the emus Moll kept on his farm.

"Emus are kind of fragile things," Lowes said. "If you spook them too much, they won't lay eggs and their meat will go bad."