$1 million: Idaho ordered to pay former corrections employee’s legal fees

Earlier this year, a Boise federal jury awarded $1.8 million to a former Idaho prison employee.

Last week, a federal judge ordered the state to pay $1 million in legal fees the employee incurred successfully suing the state.

Cynthia Fuller, a former Idaho probation and parole officer, accused Idaho Department of Correction administrators of creating a hostile work environment and causing emotional distress after she reported a co-worker, with whom she had been in a relationship, raped her.

Fuller claimed she was raped by co-worker Herbt Cruz three times over a two-week period in 2011. Her lawsuit focused on how her supervisors at the Caldwell probation and parole office and IDOC’s top administrators handled her claims and other complaints by female employees about Cruz.

Fuller said she reported the rapes to Canyon County sheriff’s detectives several days after the third assault and obtained a restraining order against Cruz.

One week before the first sexual assault, IDOC placed Cruz on administrative leave because he was under criminal investigation for another rape, according to court documents. A supervisor later told employees (including Fuller) that the agency “looked forward” to his prompt return from leave.

Fuller sued in August 2013. A federal judge in December 2014 dismissed the case. Fuller appealed, and in August 2017, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to court for trial, which took place in Ada County in February.

Fuller’s attorneys, Erika Birch and Kass Harstad with Strindberg & Scholnick, spent more than seven years litigating her case, including a nine-day jury trial.

Idaho Dept. of Administration Risk Management Program, which handled the case, told the Statesman it has not yet determined how much it has paid in outside legal fees defending Fuller’s case.