Idaho man files lawsuit over suicide

SPOKANE, Wash. — Three years after his wife committed suicide, her husband is suing a Spokane Valley dentist who fired her as his office manager, apparently after the dentist's wife learned they were having an affair.

According to the case filed by David Yount of Rathdrum, Idaho, in Spokane County Superior Court, Dr. Robert G. Wendel took advantage of Christa Yount's fragility and emotional instability, committed sexual harassment and inflicted emotional distress.

Christa L. Yount, 35, jumped off the 300-foot-high Veterans Memorial Centennial Bridge on Interstate 90 east of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Valentine's Day in 2004 within hours after Wendel ended the affair and fired her, Kuznetz wrote.

The dentist was unavailable for comment and Yount did not want to comment, The Spokesman-Review reported.

Christa Yount went to work for Wendel in 2001 and the dentist soon used his position "as owner and supervisor to create, foster and promote a sexual relationship" at a time when the Younts were in tight financial straits while building their dream home, according to the lawsuit.

She tried several times without success to end the relationship, according to Yount's lawyer, Lawrence Jay Kuznetz.

"He feels his wife died as a direct result of a guy's manipulation and control of a vulnerable woman," Kuznetz said.

"They were in a financial crunch," the lawyer said. "He had her in a box."

Also named as a defendant was Wendel's wife Michele, who is accused of demanding that Christa Yount be fired.

Christa Yount was Rathdrum's first Junior Miss and competed in other beauty pageants, according to a paid obituary that was published in the newspaper. She and her husband of 15 years were high school sweethearts and had three children.