BRESSIE CASE: Governor should take steps to avoid more tragedies

I am responding to the three-day front-page report (April 29 - May 1) by The Press concerning the years-long battle against the Bressie family by the State of Idaho and its Department of Health and Welfare. As a friend of Doug Bressie and his three children, as a potential witness, and as an observer to many of the horrors the Bressies experienced I can attest to accurate and excellent reporting by staff writer Ralph Bartholdt. His was not an easy job as the story itself had many challenging complexities.

As to the Bressies, this is a family made of steel. Many other families would have crumbled under the pressure of numerous adverse judicial decisions and the oppressive years-long actions of the State of Idaho.

Judge Robert Burton deserves his own accolades. His intelligent and thoughtful decision brought to an end the state’s efforts to terminate Doug’s parental relations with his children. By his decision he served Idaho and its expectations of justice in the highest traditions of the Bench.

I must also discuss the attorneys for the Bressies, April Linscott and James Hannon. It is impossible to accurately and fully describe the hard work and dedication of these two attorneys. In their approach to the case, they were brilliant, insightful and original. You cannot prevail in this sort of lawsuit unless you already have great character and a keen sense of moral purpose.

They both receive my own “Atticus Finch” award for legal courage.

Lastly I turn to the State of Idaho and the Department of Health and Welfare. I remind the state government that the DNA of civilization itself is the family. Without the family, mankind will swiftly become nothing but swine grunting over the slop trough. Trying for years to crush and disintegrate this family all by itself is a fearful act. For the Department to walk away after what they did and in an email of all things blithely say, “The Department denies any liability” is a warning flag to all other Idaho families that the Department is on the hunt again.

What needs to be done is for the governor to become personally engaged in this matter, appoint an independent commission to review every termination case brought by the Department to assess the damages done and to report these findings to the public. Following the report the governor should make changes necessary to assure that no more Bressie family tragedies will occur in the future.

•••

Norman Gissel is a retired attorney who lives in Coeur d’Alene.