By Joe Rogalsky and Drew Volturo,
Delaware State News
DOVER — A prison counselor who was held hostage for nearly seven hours and raped last year at Delaware Correctional Center settled her federal lawsuit against the state last month, her lawyer and the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
The state will pay Cassandra Arnold $1.65 million, said Janice Fitzsimons, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office. The money will come from the state contingency fund that covers liability issues.
The suit was settled Nov. 1, but state officials did not reveal the agreement until Wednesday when a Delaware State News reporter asked about the case.
Ms. Arnold’s attorney, Jeffrey K. Martin, would not discuss the settlement amount. He said Ms. Arnold would not comment on the settlement.
“No amount could properly compensate her for what she has gone through. She continues to suffer on a daily basis,” Mr. Martin said, pointing to weekly psychological therapy his client undergoes.
“She continues to struggle on a daily basis with what happened July 12, (2004). It continues to be a very painful situation for her psychologically.”
Mr. Martin said Ms. Arnold, a 28-year-old Smyrna resident, hopes to put an end to the “very public ordeal” of the past 16 months and return to a private life.
Ms. Fitzsimons issued a statement for the attorney general’s office, the governor’s office and Department of Correction.
“The legal action brought by Cassandra Arnold against the Department of Correction and others has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of the parties,” Ms. Fitzsimons said.
“The state and Ms. Arnold are pleased to have resolved the aspects of the events of July 12, 2004.”
Prison attack
Ms. Arnold was taken hostage and raped by Scott A. Miller, a serial rapist serving 699 years for multiple assaults against women, at DCC near Smyrna.
The incident occurred after Miller somehow moved unnoticed into a non-secure administrative hallway and hid in a bathroom after attending Ms. Arnold’s stress management class with other prisoners.
As Ms. Arnold passed the bathroom, Miller brandished a homemade 8-inch knife and grabbed her.
Holding the knife to her throat, he pulled her into an office, barricaded the door with furniture, and kept rescuers at bay for nearly seven hours before he was shot and killed by a correctional officer.
Before he was shot, Miller tied Ms. Arnold up with contraband plastic wrap, raped her and then tried to kill her with his knife.
Lawyers for Ms. Arnold attempted and failed to negotiate a $3.9 million settlement with the state prior to filing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in October 2004.
The suit initially named DOC, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, Commissioner of Correction Stanley W. Taylor and 11 others as defendants.
In June, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. said that DOC, as a branch of the state, is entitled to immunity and could not be sued.
The lawsuit claimed Gov. Minner, Mr. Taylor and the other defendants were legally responsible for damages because their actions led to a “state-created danger” that caused the incident.
Mr. Martin and fellow attorney Herbert G. Feuerhake reduced their offer to settle the suit earlier this year, but Mr. Martin would not comment Wednesday on whether they dropped to the final $1.65 million amount.
Mr. Martin said the relationship between the state’s attorneys and he and Mr. Feuerhake improved remarkably after the two sides began a six-month mediation process in May, led by former Superior Court Judge Joshua W. Martin III.
Although the hostage incident was heavily covered by the media and became a focus of last year’s gubernatorial race, Mr. Martin said many details of the seven hours Miller held Ms. Arnold hostage have not surfaced.
“What she did at the time she was held hostage was unbelievable,” he said. “All the details haven’t come out as to what she did to save herself.”
Minner silent
Kate Bailey, a spokeswoman for Gov. Minner, said the governor had no additional comment and declined a State News interview request.
Gov. Minner spent Wednesday evening giving a speech at a Council of State Governments reception in Wilmington. She is the president of the organization, which consists of state officials and state lawmakers from around the country.
Even though the Department of Justice released the $1.65 million payment, Ms. Bailey said the settlement’s confidentiality requirements prevented the governor from discussing the reason for the agreement or why the state did not reveal the deal until a State News reporter asked about it Wednesday afternoon.
“Public business should be conducted in public, especially with an issue that is as publicized as this one,” said John D. Flaherty, a lobbyist for the government-reform group Common Cause Delaware.
“This settlement certainly should have been disclosed as soon as it happened.”
Mr. Taylor had no further comment beyond the statement released by Ms. Fitzsimons, said his spokeswoman Elizabeth Welch.
Security concerns
In the months following the attack, the state Department of Correction launched an investigation into the situation.
Gov. Minner appointed a task force to examine the incident and the National Institute of Corrections also drafted a report.
The investigations identified numerous shortcomings in DOC’s security and made dozens of recommendations for improving conditions.
The investigations cited communication issues, classification of prisoners and correction officer staffing shortages as major problems.
In June, legislators and Gov. Minner agreed to set aside $1.5 million in a fund to pay for future security upgrades needed to repair deficiencies exposed by the incident and subsequent investigations.
At his budget presentation last month, Mr. Taylor said about $606,000 of that money has already been earmarked for training and upgraded security equipment such as electronic doors and cameras.
In the months following the incident, Mr. Taylor said his agency corrected some of the questionable security practices at the facility that factored in the incident, such as propping open doors that should have been locked.
The agency also changed security policies at DCC to keep a better eye on prisoners and limit their movement.
Political fallout
The hostage incident touched off protests from the correctional officers’ union and became a hot topic in last year’s gubernatorial campaign, nearly costing Gov. Minner her re-election.
Gov. Minner’s response to the incident generated significant public outcry, especially after she told the State News in a July 16, 2004, article that “in prisons, you almost expect this to happen.”
After initially acknowledging the comment, the governor and her aides later said it was taken out of context.
Gov. Minner ran a campaign ad shortly before last year’s election claiming she never made the statement.
Besides refuting the quote, the radio ad asserted the governor made the “difficult decision to disarm” the inmate who had taken Ms. Arnold hostage.
Reports from the task force Gov. Minner appointed to investigate the incident and the federal National Institute of Corrections said she played no role in the decision to shoot the inmate.
When interviewed in October 2004 by the Delaware State News about the ad, Gov. Minner did not directly answer whether the decision of how to disarm Miller was a judgment she made and then passed on to a command center established in the prison warden’s office during the incident.
When asked by the State News if she had made the decision, Gov. Minner repeated several times that she “approved” decisions made by Mr. Taylor that day.
“I have been with senior members of the administration in the last 30 days, and I am very surprised no one mentioned this settlement to a member of the legislature’s leadership,” said House Majority Leader Rep. Wayne A. Smith, R-Wilmington.
“One has to wonder if a well-timed apology and contrition at the time the tragedy happened would have saved us a lot of money.”
The incident roused long-simmering concerns correction officers had with staffing shortages and pay levels.
About two weeks after Ms. Arnold was taken hostage, officers refused voluntary overtime shifts for seven days, causing many inmate court appearances to be rescheduled because the prisoners could not be transported.
The state boosted officers’ pay by 5 percent Jan. 1 and is considering another increase next month. A recruitment program has begun to offer financial incentives to officers to recruit new colleagues, but the Department of Correction is still experiencing a high attrition rate.
Correction officers overwhelmingly rejected a proposed labor agreement Nov. 17 that would have ended three years of negotiations.
The deal, voted down 624-52, would have governed issues such as discipline, promotion and use of sick time. It would not have set pay policy or benefits.
As of Nov. 1, DOC reported 298 vacancies out of 1,861 correction officer positions.
Wilmington attorney Thomas S. Neuberger, who represents the correction officers’ union, said the settlement is an affirmation of the officers’ claims.
“This confirms that these long-standing problems with understaffing are going to come back and haunt the state time and time again,” Mr. Neuberger said Wednesday.
“(The correction officers’ union) has been beating this drum for some time now. This verifies the need to step up to the plate and make changes that are necessary.”
Mr. Neuberger said the union is drafting five bills and would seek state legislators to sponsor the measures when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.
Staff writer Joe Rogalsky can be reached at 741-8226 or jrogalsky@newszap.com
Staff writer Drew Volturo can be reached at 741-8296 or dvolturo@newszap.com
