For the week of March 20 - 26, 2002

High to spend at least five years in prison

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By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Facing a court gallery crowded with local police officers, 5^th District Judge James May on Monday sentenced convicted assailant Gail J. High to a prison term of five to 10 years.

High, 40, had been charged with the attempted murder of Hulen Meadows resident Colleen Kassner and the aggravated assault of Kassner’s tenant, John Straka. The prosecution alleged that High had gone to the Kassner home with a loaded gun to seek revenge after Kassner’s husband, Ketchum Police Sgt. Dave Kassner, had cited her for DUI. High fired the gun, without hitting anyone, during a struggle with Straka on the Kassners’ doorstep.

In December, a Blaine County jury acquitted High of attempted murder but convicted her of the assault charge, following a defense claim that High had gone to the Kassners’ home not to shoot the occupants but to commit suicide there.

On Monday, Straka and the Kassners asked the court to impose a sentence harsh enough to send a message that people cannot threaten the lives of police officers or their families with impunity. Seated in the court as spectators to support that request were 21 officers from all five local law enforcement agencies.

Defense attorney Keith Roark, however, cautioned the court that "it will not do to forget that a jury acquitted (High) of the crime of attempted murder, and then bring her into court and sentence her for a crime of which she was acquitted."

Before announcing his sentence, May said he was taking into consideration only the conviction for aggravated assault against Straka.

May said High did not deserve the probation with psychiatric treatment requested by the defense. He said she has a history of "stormy personal relationships" and of violent, vengeful behavior "whenever anyone crosses her."

"The most important goal of sentencing is to protect society," May said. "The defendant only stays out of trouble if she stays on her medication. There’s no guarantee she’s going to do that."

May sentenced High to a term of three to five years for aggravated assault, plus two to five years for using a firearm to commit the crime. The sentence was of the duration requested by Idaho Deputy Attorney General J. Scott James, who prosecuted the case.

In an interview after the hearing, Colleen Kassner said she was satisfied with the sentence.

Issues raised during the hearing pitted an acknowledged need to protect society and to impose punishment against the role played by mental illness in the commission of crime and the benefits of treatment instead of incarceration. May noted that childhood physical and sexual abuse had probably affected High’s behavior. In his testimony, psychiatrist Dr. Richard Worst told the court that High had probably been depressed and suicidal when she went to the Kassners’ home. He said that following her arrest, she was put on a complex regimen of anti-depressant, anti-psychotic and mood stabilizing drugs.

"It’s a chronic, recurrent type of depression that needs to be controlled with treatment," Worst said.

Roark contended that High will not receive proper treatment in a state prison.

Despite the irrelevance of the attempted murder charge to the court’s immediate task, the victims of High’s actions made it clear that the acquittal on that charge remains a sore spot for them. People in High’s state of mind, Straka said, often do commit suicide, "but they take a lot of other people with them."

"She came to our home a week before Christmas and she pulled a gun, a loaded gun, and she had another clip full of bullets. She was standing there with the gun pulled and she was waiting for Colleen Kassner to come to the door."

During her brief remarks, High turned to Straka and the Kassners and tearfully apologized for what she had done, but said she had not intended to hurt anyone but herself.

Speaking prior to High, Colleen Kassner said she no longer feels safe in her home. She acknowledged High’s need for psychiatric treatment, but requested a sentence long enough for High to resolve her anger.

"I’m very concerned about the day Gail High is free to walk the streets," she said. "I feel she’ll be at my doorstep the day she walks out."

 

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