Justice Agonizing For Families Cautious, Complex Legal System Adds To Grief Of Initial Tragedy

“There wasn’t a day I didn’t have to argue over the phone.”

Vicki Treadwell, victim’s mother C OEUR d’ALENE - On a warm April night, Vicki Treadwell began her agonizing experience with Idaho’s criminal justice system.

Two Oregon state troopers arrived at her Portland home, took off their hats and held them to their chests.

“Ma’am, we’re sorry,” they began.

Treadwell’s 18-year-old daughter, Kama Herndon, and her fiance, Justen Law, had been killed in a head-on collision on U.S. Highway 95 near Fighting Creek earlier that day.

The man accused of killing them had been drinking and driving, according to Idaho State Police troopers at the scene.

The days after were a blur.

First came the trip to the accident scene. In the grass lay her daughter’s watch face, a writing pen and a compact disc.

Later came the 10-page coroner’s report and the funeral.

Then came the calls. The prosecutor’s office. The state police. Insurance companies.

“There wasn’t a day I didn’t have to argue over the phone,” Treadwell said. “It was constant for weeks.”

Treadwell is among scores of people awaiting justice from a court system where punishment for vehicular homicide is a long time coming and, they say, seemingly soft on offenders. Their pain begins the instant a relative dies, but lasts months or years while charges inch through the courts.

Treadwell caught a flight to Coeur d’Alene last month to appear at a preliminary hearing, only to find out it wouldn’t happen. The Post Falls man accused of killing Herndon and Law had waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Timothy Peterson has pleaded not guilty to the crime.

Families of the victims often are shuffled from office to courtroom, having to learn legal jargon and courtroom rules.

Almost all cases go through a plea bargaining process - something many families view as a cop-out to speed cases along, prosecutors say.

Even if a case goes to trial, many families are surprised at the resulting sentences.

“If we go to trial and they see the maximum (sentence) is 41 months, some of them are horrified,” said Dianne Dougherty, a deputy prosecutor with Spokane County. “For some people, life imprisonment isn’t long enough.”

Idaho’s impaired driving fatalities increased 16 percent from 1995 to 1997, according to the Office of Highway Safety.

In Washington, alcohol-related fatalities made up about 47 percent of all fatal wrecks from 1995 to 1997, according to statistics from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Although not all cases lead to vehicular manslaughter charges, the sheer volume that do slows the court system.

It took Spokane County prosecutors 11 months to file charges against a drunken driver who forced Desiree Clayburn’s car off state Highway 291. She was killed in the September 1998 accident.

Her grandfather, Jerry Clayburn, said family members were never told by prosecutors what was happening with the case.

“One of the reasons for the frustration was that there was no closure,” Clayburn said. “It’s just the sheer weight of the bureaucracy.”

If the court system is slow, prosecutors and defense attorneys say, it is to ensure caution.

Defense attorneys often must be assigned. Evidence gathered. Motions filed and jurors carefully selected.

Despite the trauma experienced by family members, trials cannot be based on rash emotions, especially when dealing with people’s freedom, said John Adams, Kootenai County public defender.

“We don’t want to make a knee-jerk reaction,” he said.

And for families of the accused, the long wait for justice is no easier.

“They don’t want themselves or their loved one to go through the lengthy process,” Adams said.

Todd Sligar sure didn’t. The moment Sligar’s Toyota 4-Runner smashed into a tree on Father’s Day 1996, that long process began.

The 34-year-old man, who had no record of drunken driving, had had a few beers with friends at a picnic.

On the way home, Sligar lost control of the family car on a road near Nine Mile Dam. His wife, Caryle Nielsen-Sligar, was killed instantly in the wreck.

“It was hell. It’s still hell. I’ve lost my soulmate,” Sligar said this week. “I’ll never get remarried. I will never find someone like her equal.”

Sligar pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, but felt like the system victimized his family, whose members begged for leniency.

Sligar’s 12-year-old daughter, who’d been in the back seat, was asked to testify against him in the case. He could have no contact with her for six months, the court ordered.

“They acted like I was a mass murderer or something,” Sligar said.

He is completing two years of probation after being sentenced to eight months of work release and 16 months of home monitoring.

Although the system is cumbersome, some family members say it works out in the end.

“I trust in our system. It’s the only one we’ve got,” said Mark Scherling, whose son, Nick, was killed while walking home from Post Falls Middle School in November two years ago.

Connie C. Bickley’s pickup swerved off the road and hit the 13-year-old, who died at the scene. She pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and is serving time in jail.

“I got up and told the judge, `I trust the situation we’re in. I trust your judgment,”’ Scherling said. “I hate the idea of what happened. I don’t hate the lady … I don’t know if the system is designed to handle that.”

Scherling wishes her happiness.

Graphic: Vehicular homicide and DUI punishment varies