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SALT LAKE CITY -- Whether the U.S. Forest Service was acting negligently in their handling of a bear incident -- and whether that negligence led to the death of an 11-year-old boy -- is now in the hands of a judge.
For five days, the family of Samuel Ives, who was killed by a bear while camping on June 17, 2007, in American Fork Canyon, has presented their case that the U.S. Forest Service failed to protect the public, and the boy, when they didn't close the campsite following a bear incident at the same site earlier in the day.
The family asserts that the government failed to warn or notify potential campers about the earlier incident and failed to close the campsite -- both of which would have saved Sam's life. The boy's mother, Rebecca Ives, said she feels her son would be proud of the family's efforts to create change in policy to avoid a similar incident.
From the beginning, this case was never about the money. It was about the facts that came after. It was about wanting to do justice to Sam's memory. And the only way to get them to change the laws is to hit them in the pocketbook.
–Rebecca Ives
"From the beginning, this case was never about the money," she said Friday. "It was about the facts that came after. It was about wanting to do justice to Sam's memory. And the only way to get them to change the laws is to hit them in the pocketbook."
The family is seeking anywhere from $2 million to $3 million in damages.
Ives was emotional following the trial and said the whole court experience left her with a loss of faith in the government and in local police who she and her current husband feel lied in court.
"We just think about the work the government did to see that Elizabeth Smart got justice, who was also abducted, and they worked equally hard against us," she said. "It's shaken our belief in the federal government."
Allen Young, the attorney for the family, said the case was easy to summarize.
"This is a simple case of duties, of breaches of those duties and the harm caused by the breach of those duties," he said.
But an attorney for the U.S. Forest Service, Jeffrey Nelson, was adamant that they were not to blame.
"The plaintiffs have undeniably suffered a tragic loss in their lives, but the United States is not responsible for that loss," he said.
Nelson said a "gaping hole" in the case was the identification of the bear. Attorneys for the Forest Service have consistently pointed out that there was no way to definitively show that it was the same bear in both the earlier incident and the one leading to the boy's death.
The plaintiffs have undeniably suffered a tragic loss in their lives, but the United States is not responsible for that loss.
–Jeffrey Nelson
Young countered that whether it was the same bear is not the point because both Ives and her then-husband, Tim Mulvey, never would have gone up at all if they had known there was a bear threat in the area.
"The bear issue is pretty irrelevant," Young said. "If they had been advised, they wouldn't have gone up the road and we wouldn't be here today."
He referred to testimony from various employees with both the U.S. Forest Service and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources about their duties and responsibilities to protect the public. Former U.S. Forest Service employee Carolyn Gosse was mentioned multiple times. She received the phone call about the earlier incident from an emergency dispatcher and failed to call anyone, including her supervisor, to report it.
Young quoted Gosse's termination letter, which said her actions "denied (her superiors) the opportunity to provide notice."
He reminded the judge of testimony from the woman's supervisor, who said if he had been told, he would have driven to the campsite and told every camper and the camp host about the possible danger. The camp host testified that the "first words out of my mouth" to any camper entering the area would have been about the bear incident.
Nelson contended that a bear fatality had never before happened and the U.S. Forest Service had no way of knowing it was a possibility. He pointed out that DWR officials spent five hours searching the area following the incident and didn't feel there was significant risk to warrant closing the campsite.
"There was no duty by the forest service to action against an unforeseeable possibility which had never before occurred," he said. "If the forest service is tasked with protecting against every danger that could occur, we would have to close the entire forest," he said.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball took the case under advisement. His ruling could take months.
E-mail: emorgan@desnews.com
