SIMI COUPLE FACES BURDEN OF LAWSUIT, TROUBLED SON.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Robert and Bea Pedersen found contentment in retirement by feeding the hungry, helping the homeless and doing other good deeds.

Each weekday morning, Bob Pedersen, a 72-year-old retired aerospace contract administrator, enjoyed collecting surplus food from grocery stores and distributing the bounty to dozens of families through an informal giveaway program.

Bea Pedersen, 71, a former cafeteria worker and retail store clerk, found happiness volunteering regularly at St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Simi Valley. The altar guild and the Samaritan Center for the homeless have benefited from her helping hand.

The couple also managed to muster enough energy to help their youngest son, Mark Pedersen, 32, deal with a worsening mental illness.

Their routine was violently disrupted Dec. 18 when Mark Pedersen was arrested following a confrontation with Simi Valley police at the family's home which sent both an officer and their son to the hospital with gunshot wounds.

Adding to the burden is a lawsuit filed against the couple in January by Officer Dave Raduziner, who was wounded in the thigh when his partner fired two shots at close range that passed through Mark Pedersen. The lawsuit claims Robert and Bea Pedersen could have helped prevent the bloodshed.

With their son likely headed for trial in Ventura Superior Court, the couple accustomed to giving strength to others is struggling to cope.

"It's been devastating," said Robert Pedersen, a usually affable man who remains angry with both his son and the police.

"I'm uptight," he said. "I did something the other day I hadn't done in a long time. I swore at a lady who didn't want a loaf of sourdough bread."

Bea Pedersen, meanwhile, agonizes over her jailed son's continued refusal to take prescribed medication to control the schizophrenia that has been increasingly debilitating over the past eight years.

"It's very disappointing to me," she explained. "We we're trying to get him help. He just felt that the lord was going to take care of him."

Despite his parents' urgings, the son was increasingly unwilling to take a prescribed tranquilizing drug and two drugs to counter side effects. His parents said the lack of medication likely led to his bout of yelling outside the family's home Dec. 18.

A neighbor called police to complain. Two officers and a sergeant responded to what police said was a report to check on Pedersen's welfare.

Simi Valley police said they had sent patrol units to the Pedersen home at least 21 times before. Robert Pedersen said this was the first occasion more than two officers responded, and he said it was the first to end violently.

Police said Mark Pedersen ran into his room by the time officers Raduziner and John Hughes arrived. After Bea Pedersen let them in the home, the officers attempted to convince Mark Pedersen to leave the bedroom. Police officials said the officers became anxious at hearing Pedersen moaning and kicked the door down.

Ventura County prosecutors charge that Pedersen attempted to stab Raduziner with a pocketknife after the door was kicked in. As Raduziner and Pedersen struggled in a cramped hallway, Hughes fired two shots from his handgun at close range.

The county grand jury indicted Pedersen for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

Robert and Bea Pedersen have been critical of the police response to check on their son's welfare. She contends the officers ignored her plea to wait for a county mental health worker to arrive. He contends the officers were overly aggressive and did not need to fire a handgun to subdue their son.

"I'm never allowing another policeman through my door again," Robert Pedersen said.

Simi Valley police officials counter that calls to check the welfare of mentally unstable people pose special dangers to officers because they do not know what to expect.

The shooting at the Pedersen house occurred about three blocks from where Officer Michael Clark, 28, was shot to death Aug. 4. Former high school teacher Daniel Tuffree faces trial on murder and related charges that could bring the death penalty.

Clark was the first Simi Valley officer killed in the line of duty. He had gone Tuffree's home on Aztec Court with another officer and a sergeant in response to a call from a mental health clinic about a potentially suicidal man.

In the December incident at the Pedersen home, police officials have said Hughes fired in response to a threat to Raduziner. Hughes, 31, has been with the department for 14 months after serving for six years with the Los Angeles Police Department. Raduziner, 31, has been with the department for five years.

Raduziner is recovering from his wounds and might not be able to return to duty this year. Surgeons placed a steel rod in his thigh bone to help the healing, but have not decided whether to remove the second bullet, said his attorney, William Koontz.

Raduziner declined to be interviewed by the Daily News.

The Pedersens remain shaken by the injuries suffered by Raduziner, as well as their son.

"I felt sorry that he was hurt. I just felt it could have been avoided," Bea Pedersen said.

In the civil lawsuit, though, Raduziner claims both Pedersen and his parents were responsible for his injuries. The lawsuit claims Robert and Bea Pedersen were negligent by failing to warn the officers that their son had "violent and unpredictable tendencies," and Hughes was required to fire his handgun in response to Pedersen's knife attack.

"I was dumbfounded," Robert Pedersen said of the civil lawsuit. "This is harder to deal with now because it's going to take every penny we have to fight them."

While their son is represented in the criminal case by the Ventura County Public Defender's Office, the Pedersens must hire a private attorney to represent him in the civil lawsuit. Their homeowner's insurance cTarrier won't pay an attorney to represent their son because he is an adult who was living at their home.

The accumulated stress of the past two months has taken a toll on Robert Pedersen's health. Pedersen was hospitalized with pneumonia from Jan. 31 through Feb. 3. He returned to Simi Valley Hospital on Feb. 5 for two days of care following a stroke.

"The doctors said it was stress, but they couldn't pinpoint why," Robert Pedersen said. "It's never happened before."

Yet the Pedersens' primary concern still is their son.

They hold out hope their son eventually will get the mental health care he needs because they fear he would never survive a state prison sentence.

Robert and Bea Pedersen's weekly routines now include visits to the Ventura County Jail each Sunday, where they visit with their son for as long as the jail allows.

"His coloring isn't very good. He looks thin," his mother noted.