Several previous OpenCdA posts have commended the family of Reggie Nault for engaging a local attorney and pursuing the facts in Reggie Nault’s drowning death.

Melissa Luck, Assistant News Director at KXLY4 News in Spokane,  posted an online news story revealing that a wrongful death civil lawsuit was filed by the Nault family today, Wednesday, May 3.  According to her story, the lawsuit names as defendants the two other 16-year old boys in the boat as well as two adults who allegedly provided alcoholic beverages to the three boys.

OpenCdA concludes tonight’s admittedly incomplete post with the same words we used to end our first one on October 20, 2015:

As OpenCdA has often said, the Kootenai County justice rug has become lumpier and lumpier as incidents have been swept under it.  By engaging an attorney to monitor the investigation of Reggie Nault’s death and evaluate the results of that investigation, the young man’s family is honoring his life by using his death to keep a trained and watchful eye on those who might be tempted to lift the rug’s edge and sweep again.  The facts are the facts, and they will not change.

There can be no genuinely good outcome when a young person dies prematurely.  The closest thing to a comforting outcome is that the person’s family hopes others will learn from the facts of his death and use what they learn to help themselves and others avoid similar outcomes.

We think the Nault family’s action toward that end is honorable and commendable.

We will try to get a copy of the lawsuit’s complaint and post it here.