The state of Idaho reached a settlement on behalf of its prison system after a former corrections officer admitted to sexually assaulting an incarcerated woman.
The Idaho Department of Administration’s Risk Management Program told the Idaho Statesman that it paid $62,500 to settle the woman’s claims against Idaho and the state’s prison system.
The lawsuit accused the Idaho Department of Correction and the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center of “grossly” failing to protect the woman from IDOC food service officer Derek Stettler.
He was accused of rape and other crimes against the 37-year-old woman in 2021.
In November 2022, Stettler was charged with three counts of sexual contact with an adult inmate and one count of rape.
Under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, individuals who are incarcerated cannot consent to sexual contact, so any such act is considered sexual abuse.
Stettler killed himself in December 2022.
