Judge ponders lawsuit over suicide in artifact looting case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Judge ponders lawsuit over suicide in artifact looting case
Brady Mccombs, Associated Press
Updated 7:40 pm, Thursday, October 29, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal judge peppered attorneys with questions Thursday that suggested he's struggling to decide if federal agents unleashed excessive force against a southern Utah doctor who killed himself a day after his 2009 arrest in a multistate artifact looting investigation.

During a hearing in Salt Lake City, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby told an attorney for James Redd's family that he doesn't see sufficient evidence to suggest the action taken by federal Bureau of Land Management agents necessarily violated Redd's constitutional rights.

But Shelby also told a Department of Justice attorney representing the agent being sued that the case alarms him, making him consider asking a jury to determine if agents crossed the line during the raid.

. . .

Jeanne Redd filed the wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of her husband's estate in 2011. She said paramilitary agents overwhelmed James Redd, 60, at gunpoint and subjected him to "inhumane and unjust acts." With 18 law enforcement vehicles in his driveway, agents threatened him with the loss of his medical license while asking his wife if she felt suicidal.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Hearing-for-lawsuit-over-suicide-in-artifact-6597587.php

[Sinistrous]

1. Interesting case.

I will try to follow it to see how it turns out.

[wordpix]

2. I agree. Looting on Indian lands is bad medicine

sounds like the guy is part of a rather large ring in the SW. He may be grave robbing and the like and if he's part of a ring, they may have guns to protect their business and looted artifacts. So I would not jump to the conclusion that force was excessive.

Here's hoping if this case goes to trial there will be some Native Americans on that jury.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

4. That is what I have hypothesized...

... I can see where, "get down on the ground, face down", may seem insulting to a doctor and his wife.

[Sunlei]

3. That must have been terrifying, 18 vehicles and helicopters & 30? 'agents', surprise!

They should get a jury but that's very rare for the government courts to allow a jury or rule that any ones constitutional rights were violated.