The widow of a man killed in the Century Aurora 16 theater shooting has sued the CU psychiatrist who was treating the alleged killer, saying she should have had him placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold.

Chantel Blunk, wife of Jonathan T. Blunk, filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver against University of Colorado Denver, Dr. Lynne Fenton and five unnamed defendants.

It is the first case filed against the school and Fenton, director of student mental health services on the Anschutz Medical Campus, where shooting suspect James Holmes was studying neuroscience.

The university has “nothing but sympathy for the victims, but in the initial review of this case the university believes the lawsuit is not well-founded legally or factually,” university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said

She said the university has received notice that 11 similar suits could be filed.

The university has retained attorneys Jane Mitchell and Richard Murray to represent Fenton. Murray, a medical malpractice and insurance defense expert, said he couldn’t comment on the case.

On June 11, less than a month before the July 20 rampage that killed 12 and injured 70, Holmes told Fenton “that he fantasized about killing a lot of people,” according to the suit.

Fenton alerted CU’s Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment team about Holmes but went no further, the suit said.

When campus police officer Lynn Whitten asked Fenton if she should apprehend Holmes and place him on a psychiatric hold, “Fenton rejected the idea,” according to the five-page lawsuit.

“Fenton was presented with the opportunity to use … reasonable care when the Colorado University police offered to apprehend James Holmes and place him on a psychiatric hold,” the suit says.

The burden of proof for civil lawsuits is less than is required in a criminal case, where prosecutors must show guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A lawsuit requires only that the “preponderance of evidence is more likely true than not true,” said former Denver District Court Judge Christina Habas, a lawyer with Keating Wagner Polidori Free.

But proving that Fenton did not conform to standards required of her profession won’t be easy, said Habas, who is representing several shooting victims in civil lawsuits against Cinemark, the company that owns the theater.

The lawsuit against Fenton claims the shooting would not have occurred had the doctor ordered a psychiatric hold. She is being sued for failing to act rather than for taking an action that results in harm, Habas said.

“There are so many possibilities that stem from failure to act it is almost like Monday morning quarterbacking after the Broncos lose,” Habas said.

A psychiatric hold is an emergency measure, and keeping someone under restraint longer than 72 hours requires a medical evaluation and the approval of a judge, Habas said.

There is no guarantee a judge would have ordered Holmes to be locked up beyond 72 hours, she said. “Can you prove, at a minimum, he had to be held beyond the 72 hours? It calls for a lot of speculation.”

In December, a source told The Denver Post and other media that Fenton advised the university threat assessment team about Holmes after he mentioned fantasies about killing people. Other details in the suit were also reported.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge William Sylvester has restricted the flow of information about the case, and there has been no testimony in court about what prompted Fenton to go to police. Nor has the information been released in court documents.

The public doesn’t know yet what Holmes told Fenton, whether he made specific threats or what type of assessment Fenton made, said Karen Steinhauser, an adjunct professor at Denver University’s Sturm College of Law.

A civil lawsuit could answer questions left unanswered in the criminal trial, Steinhauser said.

Prosecutors in the criminal case against Holmes may want information held by Fenton in order to show planning and intent after deliberation.

But physician-patient privilege protects communications between a patient and doctor from being used against the patient, and there is no guarantee the judge would order Fenton to waive that privilege and testify, Steinhauser said.

A court order would be required for the doctor to waive privilege.

But in civil court, “there would be more of an argument as to why it is necessary to break that confidentiality,” Steinhauser said. “She would most likely have to break the confidentiality in order to defend herself.”

The lawsuit says Blunk and her children have suffered loss of companionship, emotional and psychological distress, and economic damages in an amount greater than $75,000.

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dpmcghee