$62,500 For Idaho Prisoner Raped by Guard Who Later Committed Suicide
An apparent error by attorneys for a former Idaho prisoner limited her recovery to just $62,500 after she was raped by a guard. In a letter to PLN on August 30, 2024, the Idaho Department of Administration confirmed that was the amount paid by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to settle the suit filed by Jamie Boothe, whom former Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center (PWCC)guard Derek Stettler admitted sexually assaulting before he took his own life.
Boothe, then 37 and known as Jamie Dawn Hamilton, was incarcerated at the lockup in Bannock County for a pair of DUI convictions before her release to supervision in 2023. There she was employed in the facility’s kitchen under Stettler’s supervision. In the suit later filed on her behalf, she said that the guard began his abuse by making sexual statements in her presence and about her, and he also “approached [her while she was] working in the storage closet and kissed her on the forehead and cheek.”
Not content with this, on November 21, 2021, he “backed [Boothe] into a bathroom corner and forced her to perform oral sex on him.” He also groped her genitals a few weeks later, saying “your pussy feels so good in my hands.” After that, Stettler “began pressuring [Boothe] to keep quiet about what he had done,” her complaint continued, including by “having other inmates degrade [her] publicly.” Yet still the guard continued to make “sexually charged comments to [her] in private,” also “sexually assaulting her.”
Stettler left the DOC when state police began investigating Boothe’s complaint in May 2022. When interviewed in August 2022 by investigators who pointed to his violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), 42 U.S.C. ch.147 § 15601, et seq., Stettler admitted to the assaults and misconduct. “I know all about (the PREA) and all that. I really fucked up,” Stettler told them. “I know there is no consent, it does not exist, and even if they want it and signed a contract, (it) is still a no.”
In November 2022, Stettler was charged with three counts of sexual contact with an adult inmate and one count of rape, court records showed. The 42-year-old committed suicide the following month. With the aid of attorneys Susan L. Mimura, V. Renee Karel and Danielle M. Evans of Susan Lynn Mimura & Assoc., PLLC in Meridian, Boothe filed suit in federal court for the district of Idaho against Stettler, the DOC, and Jessica Urban, a fellow guard who allegedly knew about the misconduct and even warned Stettler to stop, but she failed to report it to superiors. The DOC settled the claims against the agency and Urban with the $62,500 payment, which also included fees and costs for Boothe’s attorneys. As part of the agreement, they dismissed her complaint against the settling defendants.
However, they failed to properly serve Stettler’s estate with the amended complaint within the required timeframe. If a defendant isn’t served with a copy of the lawsuit within 90 days of its filing, federal rules of civil procedure require judges to dismiss the suit. “The court understands there are a lot of moving parts in litigation, but ignoring the court is not acceptable,” Chief U.S. District Judge David Nye wrote in his order, dismissing the remaining complaint against Stettler. See: Hamilton v. Stettler, USDC (D. Idaho), Case No. 1:23-cv-00493.
Two more unnamed guards also accused of sexually assaulting state prisoners—and covering for each other, too—both quit the DOC in 2023, though details of their separation were unclear. Urban remains employed at the agency.
Additional source: East Idaho News, Idaho Statesman
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Related legal case
Hamilton v. Stetler
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (D. Idaho), Case No. 1:23-cv-00493 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |