MONROE, Wash. — The state has settled a lawsuit with the parents of corrections officer Jayme Biendl, who was strangled by an inmate while at her post in the Monroe Corrections Facility chapel.
No dollar amount has been disclosed.
A jury sentenced repeat rapist Byron Sherf to die last year for the 2011 murder of Biendl. He was already was serving a life sentence for violent attacks against women.
Biendl’s family filed a lawsuit Jan. 28 against the state Department of Corrections and former Monroe Correctional Complex Superintendent Scott Frakes. The lawsuit alleged that the state and Frakes failed to do enough to protect Biendl.
The lawsuit focused on Scherf's known criminal history and his access to Biendl. Biendl's father, James Hamm, said last year that his daughter loved horses, gardening and her family. She hoped to have children of her own one day.
"The worst part is the feeling of loss just doesn't seem to go away,” said Hamm. “There's nothing we can do except sit here helplessly grieving.”
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