A wrongful death lawsuit was filed last month in Sauk County Circuit Court by the parents of a 4-year-old boy who drowned last year at the Wilderness Hotel and Golf Resort in Lake Delton.

The suit, filed by the parents of the victim, Tyler Houtakker, of Asbury, Iowa, claims Wilderness Hotel employees were negligent by failing to notice Tyler's distress in a wave pool that wasn't active, and for failing to rescue him.

According to a Lake Delton Police Department report, in June of 2007, after Tyler was seen floating face down in the pool by a lifeguard, a citizen was asked a minute or two later to bring Tyler out of the water where lifeguards and security personnel tried to resuscitate him.

The report said the lifeguard who noticed Tyler face down in the water asked Deven Mallo, a lifeguard supervisor, twice if it was OK to help the boy and was told not to by a supervisor.

The supervisor later told police "guests get angry when lifeguards enter the pool for non-emergency situations."

Before noticing the boy face down, reports state the lifeguard saw the boy in the not-so-crowded pool, swimming underwater before she spoke to her manager for about 15-30 seconds.

Parents said in a police interview their son probably didn't know how to swim.

In a follow-up investigation two months later, a Lake Delton detective, Kurt Doodreau, noted there was no cause for criminal negligence charges and no charges were filed by Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett.

A lawyer for the Wilderness Hotel, Jay Starrett, questioned the statement by Mallo, about guests getting angry when lifeguards enter the pool.

"I think that is an out-of-context comment, and I don't know if it has anything to do with these circumstances," Starrett said. "I'm not denying the police report, I'm denying that the conversation was in the context it was in."

In a response to the lawsuit, the Wilderness Hotel alleged that Tyler's parents, "negligently failed to properly supervise Tyler Houtakker," "failed to adhere to the water safety notice provided at check-in" and also "failed to adhere to the rules posted on signs in the water park."

When called about the suit, parents Tammy and Brian Houtakker wouldn't comment, and their lawyer didn't return phone calls.