Judge rules for government in bear mauling suit

A judge has dismissed a wrongful death suit that claimed negligence by federal researchers led to the fatal mauling of a Park Ridge man in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled Wednesday that researchers had no duty under Wyoming law to warn that a bear had been trapped and released in the area.

The Powell Tribune reports (http://bitly.com/TDYxyD) that Freudenthal also found it wasn’t obvious to the researchers that the man would enter the area.

A 430-pound grizzly killed Erwin Evert in June 2010. The male grizzly had just reawakened after being trapped, tranquilized and studied by members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.

The team researches grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region.