Biker Was Plowed Down by SUV as He Walked Away, Says Lawyer; Driver Will 'Have to Face What He Did,' Says Pastor-Father
NEW YORK - Painting a picture of innocence and charity of biker Edwin Mieses Jr. whose spine was crushed during a high-speed brawl on the West Side Highway in Manhattan, N.Y., on Sunday, newly commissioned celebrity lawyer for his family Gloria Allred charged on Friday that he was plowed down by SUV driver Alexian Lien while walking away with his back turned.
Appearing with the biker's father, Edwin Mieses Sr., and the mother of his two children, Dayana Mejia, at a press conference at the Omni Berkshire Place Hotel in Manhattan, Allred charged that the biker was only trying to diffuse a tense situation when Lien plowed into him with his back turned.
"When he [Mieses Jr.] saw Mr. Lien's Range Rover stopped on the road, he pulled his bike over to the side and walked over to where the accident had occurred to see what had happened," said Allred in her prepared statement.
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Mieses then "tried to encourage people to move and keep riding. He was attempting to diffuse the situation," continued Allred.
"He told everyone to move on and go back to riding, and turned his back to the SUV to start walking back to his own bike. It was then, with his back to the SUV, and as he was in front of it that he was run over and crushed," said Allred.
She said it was a biker who is a firefighter and another who is an EMT who "encouraged him to focus on his children and the people that he loved until the ambulance arrived" as "he thought he would die."
She explained that while she condemns the beating Lien suffered at the hands of some of the bikers involved in the incident on Sunday, the media had unfairly pilloried the injured biker.
"Are people so blinded by their fears and prejudices in this case that they cannot see that before anyone laid a hand on Mr. Lien, that Edwin Mieses was run over, and left severely injured? Where is the justice in that?" asked Allred.
"His life will never be the same. And to top it off he has been pilloried in the press and in the public eye as though he deserved to be run over on the street," she said.
When pressed as to what she meant by prejudices and if she thought there was a racial or ethnic bias involved in the response to the brawl Allred said she was referring to bikers.
"I think there is a bias against people who ride motorcycles," she said.
Mejia painted the father of her children as a family man who loved her and his children dearly. "He is the best father I know and he would give the shirt off his back to anyone," said Media while tearing up. "I love him so much. It tears me up that anyone could think that Edwin in any way deserves what happened to him."
The biker's stoic father who works as a pastor in Pennsylvania said although he bears no anger toward anyone for what happened to his son, Lien will "have to face what he did."
"As a father, I obviously am primarily concerned about the well-being of my son and his family. He has a long, long road ahead of him. We all do. As a father, that is my focus right now," said Mieses Sr.
"But I am also a pastor," he said. "I honestly feel no anger toward anyone, including the driver of the SUV. Just as my son is going to have to live with the choice that the driver made for the rest of his life, so will that driver. Emotions got the best of several people last Sunday, and when people react based on emotion, they often make poor choices. The driver of that SUV is eventually going to have to face what he did."
