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A federal judge has refused to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the widow of a Blanding doctor who killed himself after he was arrested during a 2009 crackdown on illegal artifact trafficking.
But in his Wednesday decision, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby dismissed four out of the five claims made by Jeanne Redd in the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of James Redd's estate in 2011.
Attorneys for two Bureau of Land Management Agents named as defendants had asked the judge to toss the entire case, arguing that the agents had "qualified immunity," meaning the agents are shielded from potential lawsuits unless the plaintiff can show their statutory or constitutional rights were violated.
The judge ruled that the plaintiffs showed "sufficient alleged facts" to support a claim that agents used excessive force when James Redd was arrested in June 2009 — which was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights, attorneys argued.
However, Shelby ruled that Redd's attorneys did not show that the man's rights were violated in their claims that BLM Agent Daniel Love provided false information to get the warrant that led to Redd's arrest and a search of his home, and that he was singled out because of his standing in the community. The complaint also alleged that Redd's right to due process was violated, but Shelby ruled there was no particular evidence presented to prove this claim.
Jeanne and James Redd were among 24 people arrested in June 2009 after a two-year investigation into the theft and sale of American Indian artifacts in southeastern Utah, led by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and FBI agents working with a confidential informant. A federal indictment said the couple had taken a bird pendant worth $1,000 from tribal land; Jeanne Redd also was charged with theft and sale of other artifacts.
The Redds' complaint alleges Love doubled the value of the pendant in the indictment so the charge would rise to a felony, and that James Redd was targeted to "retaliate" for dismissal of similar charges more than a decade earlier.
About 80 federal agents went to Blanding on June 10, 2009, to arrest the Redds and 14 other individuals. Agents wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles arrived at the Redd home about 6:55 a.m. and "manhandled and handcuffed" James Redd as he returned home from an early visit to his health clinic.
James Redd, 60, was taken to his garage and "interrogated" for four hours by BLM Agent Dan Barnes. During that time, the complaint alleges Barnes called James Redd a liar, told him he would lose his medical license and accused him of using garden tools to dig up bodies.
Love allegedly urged other agents to amass at the Redd home, and at one point told James Redd's daughter that "140 agents had trampled through the Redd home at some point during the day."
James Redd was "shaken to the core" by the incident, the complaint says, and spoke to his family the next day about their decade-long fights with the state and BLM over artifacts. At some point that day, he recorded a statement for his wife and five children and then drove to a secluded spot on their property, hooked a hose to the exhaust pipe of his Jeep and asphyxiated himself.
Jeanne Redd later pleaded guilty to seven charges related to theft and sale of artifacts and was sentenced to three years of probation. A month later, Jeanne Redd filed the wrongful death lawsuit. It initially named 16 federal agents, but all but Love and Barnes have been dismissed as defendants.
jmiller@sltrib.comTwitter: @jm_miller