Vernal Kunz speaks: "You don't know what we've been through."

IDAHO FALLS — Vernal DeOrr Kunz is fighting back. Thursday morning he was in a Bonneville County courtroom asking District Judge Bruce Pickett to reconsider a lawsuit against private investigator Philip Klein.

Kunz and his father, Dennis Kunz, sued Klein for breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, libel, slander and fraud. They hired the Texas-based private investigator in 2016 to look into the disappearance of Vernal’s son, DeOrr Kunz Jr.

They weren’t happy and sued after Klein made public accusations and statements about Vernal and baby DeOrr’s mother, Jessica.

“We’re good people. We love our son. We’ve done everything we can,” Kunz tells EastIdahoNews.com. “People say we’d move mountains, we’d do this, we’d do that – well, you’ve never been in our situation. You don’t know what it’s like. You don’t know what we’ve been through.”

Most of the lawsuit against Klein was dismissed earlier this year but Kunz’s attorney, Allen Browning, wants Pickett to revisit the issue.

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“Vernal is a man that’s been wronged by Mr. Klein and a lot of people listening to Mr. Klein believing his lies,” Browning says.

Browning is referring to Klein’s public statements and a 132 page transcript taken from a private meeting between Klein and the Kunz family in Jan. 2016.

“He told Vernal he was not allowed to have his attorney with him because if Vernal brought his attorney, then Klein wouldn’t tell the family members any information about the investigation into the disappearance of their son,” Browning says.

During the meeting, the transcript shows Klein mentioned he has a good relationship with Quantico. A woman asked, “Who’s Quantico?” Klein responds, “Quantico is the FBI headquarters…They’re going to be flying some people in this week.”

“He said he had access to Jessica’s interviews with the FBI and during the course of those interviews, Jessica was…saying it was all Vernal and that Vernal did everything. That’s false,” Browning says. “Jessica didn’t say anything like that and the FBI would never share interviews with Mr. Klein anyway. They never shared any polygraph information with Mr. Klein.”

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The transcript also shows Klein saying:

“I know two FBI agents and I know two people on my staff that think it is possibly a premeditated situation. Because the deal they’re offering to everyone is it’s an accident, people. We’re not going to prosecute you for the accident. We’re just going to say you moved a body when you shouldn’t have. You made a false police report. 90 days probation, pay us a $250 fine, have a good life and go expunge your record. And they got a judge up there that’s already said he will sign expungements.”