A King County judge ruled the Washington State Department of Corrections was not negligent when it released a man who went on to murder an Auburn woman in 2012.
In a summary judgment handed down Oct. 13, Judge Bruce Heller ruled the case against the Department of Corrections was dismissed based on the court’s opinion that the plaintiffs failed to “supply facts sufficient to establish their legal claims against the defendant,” which was the state of Washington, the Department of Corrections and a community corrections officer.
Federal Way resident Cathy Harper filed the lawsuit in 2014 alleging more could have been done to prevent the murder of her daughter, Tricia Patricelli.
Patricelli was stabbed to death on Oct. 30, 2012, by her ex-boyfriend Scottye Miller. The two had a history of brutal domestic violence, which death threats, and a retraining order was in place at the time of Miller’s release. In fact, Miller was serving time for punching Patricelli in the face and threatening her before he was released early.
According to the lawsuit, Miller sent Patricelli threatening letters from jail that the Department of Corrections failed to intercept. The Department of Corrections also failed, Harper alleged, when they “made an error in calculating Miller’s early release date, failing to properly count his credit for days served in county jail.”
It’s not the only time the Department of Corrections has come under fire for early release. News broke last year that the Department of Corrections had given more than 3,000 prisoners early release since 2002 because of a “computer problem.”
If Miller was still in jail at the time he murdered her daughter, Harper said, he wouldn’t have been able to murder her. Harper claimed the state was negligent in its supervision of Miller, that it imposed “negligent infliction of emotional distress” and that it was negligent when Miller was released early from prison.
Miller has since been sentenced to 50 years at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
At the end of August, Heller granted a motion to dismiss Harper’s claims that the Department of Corrections was negligent in its supervision and early release of Miller.
Heller wrote in court documents that the Department of Corrections wasn’t negligent in its supervision because their actions did not rise to the level of “gross negligence,” which is outlined in RCW 72.09.320. A Department of Corrections officer showed “diligence” in supervising Miller, court documents state. And because Miller violated his sentence by lying that he was living with Patricelli after his release, Heller said those were not indicators of gross negligence.
A community corrections officer and community victim liaison called Patricelli four times in two months to “offer their assistance” to her. Heller wrote one of those times was while Miller was living with her, but she did not seek help.
“Plaintiffs contend that [the community corrections officer] was grossly negligent by failing to call [Miller’s mother] on Oct. 23 to verify that Miller was in fact staying with her,” the documents state. “The court agrees that this more intensive level of supervision would certainly have been desirable, particularly in light of the horrendous outcome. But looking at the circumstances from the perspective of what was known to the Department of Corrections at the time, including Miller’s dangerous propensities, and considering all the steps [officers took] the court concludes that no reasonable jury could find the absence of slight care.”
In looking at the early release claim, Heller wrote that Harper’s allegations that Miller was released four months early on “an improper calculation of time” weren’t justified. He said, according to an undisputed declaration, the Department of Corrections had no sentencing information related to his misdemeanor, and “more importantly, the sentence would not have been served in Department of Corrections custody.”
“The only possible calculation error attributable to Department of Corrections relates to a violation of his previous supervision,” Heller wrote. “Assuming an error occurred, Miller should have been released eight days later and would have been on community custody on Oct. 30,2012, [the day Patricelli was killed].”
While Heller initially ruled in favor of Harper’s “negligent infliction of emotional distress” claim, as she was diagnosed with major depression, the court dismissed it this month. Defendants pointed out RCW 72.09320, a law stating a plaintiff is required to prove gross negligence as a precondition for all civil damages, including her negligent infliction of emotional distress claim.
“The statute applies to plaintiff’s [negligent infliction of emotional distress] claim, just as it applies to the negligent supervision claim,” court documents state.
Heller dismissed Harper’s entire case on Oct. 13. She was representing Patricelli’s two children in the case.
