State sued over rape-murder in `Cowboy Mike' case

Washington state is being sued over a rape and murder by Michael John Braae, 48, a former country singer known as "Cowboy Mike," while he was on parole.

In a case seeking unspecified damages, survivors of Lori Jones, 44, of Lacey, accused the state Corrections Department of disregarding a judge's order to tighten supervision of Braae a year before she was killed.

"This is a case where there were red flags all over the place that he was a bad actor," said Bryan Gregory Smith of the Yakima, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit.

"He was placed on the lowest level of supervision. This guy needed geographical range restrictions, field visits and drug testing."

In a hearing in October 2000 in Thurston County Superior Court, Braae was found to be out of compliance with his probation stemming from a jail escape in 1997.

Judge Christine A. Pomeroy ordered that he be placed on community supervision, but the state agency instead placed him on LFO, which stands for legal, financial obligations only, a status that requires a person on probation to pay fines but does not require home visits by probation officers, Smith wrote.

"He was placed on the lowest level of supervision," Smith told The Olympian newspaper. "This guy needed geographical range restrictions, field visits and drug testing."

The Corrections Department issued a statement Thursday saying the agency's lawyers "will work with opposing counsel as this case progresses."

"First and most importantly, our hearts and concern remain with families who have been tragically victimized by Michael Braae," the statement said.

Smith also has filed two other similar lawsuits on behalf of women he described as survivors of attacks by Braae - Marchelle Morgan, shot in the head and left for dead south of Union Gap, and Karen Peterson, who said Braae sexually assaulted her in Yakima County, both in July 2001.

Braae was charged with attempted murder in the Morgan case, which ended in a mistrial after a judge ruled she was unfit to testify as a witness because of brain injuries.

He was convicted in May of raping and murdering Jones, whose body was found under her bed in June 2001.

Weeks after that killing, Braae was caught following a chase that began in eastern Oregon and ended after he leaped off a 40-foot bridge into the Snake River on the Oregon-Idaho border. He was subsequently sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison in Idaho for aggravated assault and eluding an officer.

Braae remains under investigation in the disappearance of two of his former girlfriends, former Lacey resident Deb VanLuven in 1997 and Susan Ault of Wahkiakum County in 2001, and the death of a third, Velina Larson, in Clackamas County, Ore.

According to the lawsuit, a Clackamas County sheriffs detective told the Corrections Department in 1998 that Braae was under investigation in the death of Larson and requested 24-hours notice before he was released from custody.

Clackamas County Sgt. Wendi Babst also told The Olympian that Braae had been investigated or arrested three times in rape cases that were never brought to trial.

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Information from: The Olympian, http://www.theolympian.com