The widow of a Blanding doctor who killed himself after a 2009 crackdown against illegal artifact trafficking is suing the federal government for wrongful death and other claims.

It is the second lawsuit Jeanne Redd has filed seeking compensation for James Redd's death. The first, filed in May, was against the agents who conducted the raid. This one, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, names the FBI, the Justice Department and the Bureau of Land Management.

The new lawsuit alleges that federal agents overwhelmed Redd, 60, at gunpoint — Blanding residents counted 18 agent vehicles in his driveway — and threatened him with the loss of his medical license while asking his wife if she felt suicidal.

He was accused of trading with a government operative for a bird effigy illegally removed from American Indian lands. The government never produced it or proved its existence, Redd's attorneys claim.

"Sadly, but not surprisingly, Doctor Redd's suicide was only one of three triggered by outrageous, inhumane and unjust acts by the [government's] agents," they wrote.

Another suspect, Steven Shrader, of Santa Fe, N.M., later committed suicide, followed by government operative Ted Gardiner.

The lawsuit says Redd taught a "Gospel Doctrine" class in his LDS ward on the Sunday before his June 2009 arrest, preaching "the sanctity of life and how good it was to be alive."

Later, a day after being swarmed by "paramilitary federal agents" and interrogated for four hours in his garage, according to the lawsuit, he connected a garden house to his vehicle's exhaust and asphyxiated himself. First, the attorneys wrote, he "walked out on the patio of his home, looked east to Colorado and recorded his thoughts to his wife and five children, telling them how much he loved them."

"It's a tragedy," Montana-based attorney Edward Moriarity said Friday, two days after filing the latest lawsuit. His case seeks unspecified damages and legal fees plus at least $24,800 for funeral and burial expenses. It alleges negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful death.

Even the government's name for the operation — Cerberus Action, after a mythical three-headed hound guarding the underworld's gates — hints at its attitude in the case, Moriarity said.

"Maybe they thought it was funny, but it's not," he said. "They drove this man to kill himself."

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah declined to comment on the suit, and a spokesman for the U.S. Interior Department, which includes the BLM, did not respond to a request for comment.

Retired Interior and Justice officials who worked other artifacts cases previously told The Salt Lake Tribune it is common to use overwhelming force to ensure agents' safety — especially amid reports that many of the suspects had weapons.

Jeanne Redd and daughter Jericca both pleaded guilty to artifacts-related crimes and served probation. The lawsuit contends that James Redd maintained his innocence during his interrogation.

bloomis@sltrib.com —

'Operation Cerberus Action'

The government used a former artifacts collector and dealer to trade with dozens of suspects allegedly dealing in artifacts stolen from federal and American Indian lands.

The two-year investigation led to the June 2009 raid, which Utah's U.S. senators criticized at the time for its show of overwhelming force.

James Redd, a Blanding doctor, was the first of three to commit suicide in the case.

Of more than two dozen indicted, most have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to probation.

None but a Blanding man who threatened the government operative have been sentenced to prison.