An Arizona prison teacher, who was stabbed and raped by a convicted sex offender, has agreed to settle with the state for $3 million. This comes two years after the lawsuit has been filed.
In a report by ABC 15, the agreement has been obtained by The Associated Press and it says that the state did not admit liability over what happened to the victim but they agreed to the payment. Both parties will be paying their own attorney fees.
Accordingly, the attack took place in January 2014 and a lawsuit was filed nine months after. Mia Garcia, spokeswoman for Attorney General Mark Brnovich, said in a statement that the AG made it a priority to settle the lawsuit. Garcia added, "This was something that was very, very important to him, and this was not something that he was trying to hide."
The lawsuit from the unidentified victims has accused the officials of failing to protect her as she was left alone with the sex offender during the attack. The lawsuit also accuses the prison system's health care provider noting that they failed to "properly evaluate" the prisoner. After the rape incident, prison officials equipped the building with cameras in the classrooms as well as increased patrols and issued pepper spray to civilian workers.
During the incident, AZ Central shared that the teacher was supposed to give a GED exam to seven convicted sex offenders at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Eyman. However, a special event was taking place at that time and she was only handed a radio and was sent to an unmonitored classroom. She was supposed to be with corrections officers.
The exam lasted for 90 minutes and six inmates left the area and returned to their dorms, unescorted. One inmate, identified as Jacob Harvey, then attacked the teacher. Harvey was sentenced to 30 years in prison after he raped a woman in front of her toddler. The 20-year-old inmate took the woman to the ground, stabbed her head with a pen repeatedly, choked her, and slammed her as he tore away her clothes, People reported.
Harvey was then sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the January 2014 rape. He apologized to the teacher during his sentencing.
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