Slain corrections officer’s family settles lawsuit

MONROE — The state has settled a lawsuit with the parents of slain Monroe corrections officer Jayme Biendl.

The lawsuit was dismissed earlier this week after the state agreed to pay Biendl’s parents $900,000, according to records provided Friday by the state Attorney General’s Office.

“This settlement may bring closure, but it won’t bring Jayme back. There is no amount of money that can replace the loss our family has endured. We have been on an emotional roller coaster these past three years and worry that our mom and dad cannot take the emotions of fighting the state for another two to five years,” Biendl’s siblings wrote in a statement released to The Herald.

“We truly hope and pray that no other family ever has to feel the pain we felt on January 29, 2011,” they wrote.

Biendl, 34, was strangled by an inmate while at her post in the prison chapel at the Washington State Reformatory. Repeat rapist Byron Scherf, 55, confessed to ambushing Biendl at the end of her shift. A Snohomish County jury last year sentenced Scherf to die for the slaying.

He already was serving a life sentence for violent attacks against women, including lighting a victim on fire after raping her.

Scherf had been classified a medium security inmate, allowing him to volunteer in the chapel. Biendl had worked in the prison chapel, a solo post, for about six years before she was killed inside the sanctuary.

Her family filed a lawsuit Jan. 28 against the state Department of Corrections and former Monroe Correctional Complex Superintendent Scott Frakes. The lawsuit alleged that the state and Frakes failed to do enough to protect Biendl.

The lawsuit largely focused on Scherf’s known criminal history and his access to Biendl.

“The biggest issue from the get-go has been how in the world was Scherf in the position he was in, where he could be alone with a female officer given his history, which DOC knew,” Seattle attorney Becky Roe told The Herald in January.

The state had reduced Scherf’s classification status, despite his violent crimes and despite corrections officials’ written warnings that he should always be considered high risk, particularly to female employees.

State prison officials had kept a running log on Scherf’s behavior since the mid-1990s. In 2001, one log entry said that Scherf “will likely be a ‘model inmate’ but he will always be a danger to female staff and, as he agreed, we cannot know if he is having (rape) fantasies or problems; there are no outward signs,” according to state records obtained by The Herald.

An internal investigation and a review by the National Institute of Corrections never answered why Scherf was downgraded to medium security. The state also never produced any records documenting the reasons for the change.

Biendl’s sibling would have preferred going forward with the lawsuit “to draw more scrutiny to the unsafe working conditions at Monroe, and particularly the horribly flawed decisions that classified Scherf such that he could roam the facility unsupervised,” according to the family’s statement.

However, Jayme’s parents, Jackie and James Hamm, already endured “the stress and trauma of the lengthy criminal case,” the release said.

“Another step toward closure was more important at this stage in their lives,” Biendl’s sister Lisa Hamm said in the release.

Biendl’s father is “hopeful that DOC has learned a lesson and that Jayme’s death was not in vain.”

As a result of Biendl’s death, state lawmakers now require the corrections department to make an annual report on corrections staff safety. Many of the changes were recommended by the National Institute of Corrections after then Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered a study on prison safety.

Additionally three Monroe corrections officers were fired after an internal investigation found that they engaged in misconduct, and failed to perform their jobs the night Biendl was killed.

A corrections officer assigned to monitor inmates leaving the chapel and other outbuildings was not at his post that night. Scherf admitted that when he didn’t see the man on the walkway he went back into the chapel to attack Biendl.

During Scherf’s murder trial, prosecutors told jurors that he took advantage of complacency among some corrections officers that night to corner Biendl while she was alone in one of the few places in the prison not monitored by security cameras.

The state was forced to offer the fired officers their jobs back after an arbitrator concluded that safety concerns were widespread at the prison, and that it was unfair to blame individual employees for an institutional problem.

Biendl’s family called for change, urging the state to make prisons safer for staff.

“We can only hope that the DOC will use any money they have to make improvements to the prison to protect the amazing people who work there and protect us every day,” Biendl’s family wrote. “Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we try to rebuild our lives and finally try to mourn the loss of our daughter, sister, and friend.”

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood blocks Highway 99 south

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.