Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The fourth and final day of witness testimony in the federal trial involving a fatal bear mauling belonged to witnesses for the U.S. Forest Service.
Samuel Ives, 11, was ripped from the tent he was sharing with his family and killed by a bear believed to have attacked campers at the same site earlier in the day. The boy's family is now suing the Forest Service for $2 million, citing negligence on the part of the agency, which owned the land, for not having warned them.
Attorneys for the government agency called five witnesses, including three employees of the Utah County Sheriff's Office, one of whom was the first on the scene in American Fork Canyon that night in June 2007.
"When they responded, they said (the boy's mother) had a strong odor of alcohol," the attorney for Ives' family, Allen Young, said outside of court. "That's irrelevant. The fact people might be drinking is no reason to not tell people that there's a bear in the area. In fact, that's even more of a reason."
Officers who documented the scene found a granola bar wrapper and an open can of Coke Zero in the family's tent. Rebecca Ives said previously she did not know any food had been allowed in the tent and had taught both of her sons about camping safety.
When they responded, they said (the boy's mother) had a strong odor of alcohol. That's irrelevant. The fact people might be drinking is no reason to not tell people that there's a bear in the area. In fact, that's even more of a reason.
–Allen Young
She testified that they had cleaned the campsite and placed all food and waste in the family's vehicle before they went to sleep.
Ken Bunnell, who is the mammals program coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife, took the stand and testified that in the 100 years or so that the agency has been keeping records, there had never been a death involving a black bear.
He said data collected from 2000-2006 suggests there are as many as 2,700 black bears in the state. He confirmed that on the morning of June 17, 2007, the day the boy was killed, he took a phone call about a level III bear, which under state policy, should be destroyed.
That morning, a bear had swatted at a man asleep in his tent, eventually ripping a hole in the nylon. The man and his friends scared the animal off and later contacted emergency dispatchers, who, in turn, contacted state and federal officers.
After the DWR learned of the bear run-in, they sent agents to try and track the bear. After approximately five hours, they decided to return in the morning.
The family believes they should have put up warnings and asked the Forest Service to close the site. They said they were unaware of the bear and the threat it imposed when they arrived to camp later that same day.
A separate case is pending against the DWR in state court.
The attorneys for the Forest Service rested their case in just under two hours.
Each side of the federal case will present closing arguments Friday morning. It is expected the judge will take the case under advisement and issue a written ruling at a later date.
E-mail: emorgan@desnews.com
