State to pay $6.4 million after 4 women killed or attacked by man under supervision

The state Department of Corrections (DOC) has agreed to pay $6.4 million on behalf of four women whose families say they were attacked, raped or killed by a man not properly supervised by the department.

Michael Braae, who was known by the moniker "Cowboy Mike," had been incorrectly labeled a low-risk offender by the DOC before a spree in 2001 that left two women dead, a third alive but with a bullet in her head and a fourth choked and raped, according to lawsuits filed in Thurston County Superior Court.

"It is shocking that this man was not properly supervised," the victims' attorney, Blaine Tamaki, said in a news statement released Monday.

The DOC declined to comment on the settlement, saying that it had not yet been signed by a judge.

Over the past five years, the DOC has paid out more than $13 million to settle lawsuits alleging the department failed to properly supervise offenders.

The payments include $3.3 million to the family of King County sheriff's Deputy Steve Cox, who was fatally shot by parolee Raymond Porter in 2006; $2.5 million to the families of children killed by parolee Buford Furrow Jr. at a Jewish community center in California in 2001; and $6.5 million to the family of a Tacoma woman killed in a 1997 car accident caused by an offender who was high on drugs.

Braae, 50, was arrested on July 20, 2001, during a three-state manhunt after he leapt off a 40-foot bridge into the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho.

According to the lawsuit, Braae had a long criminal history that began in the 1970s, stretched from Washington to California, and included domestic-violence, drunken-driving, escape and rape charges.

In 2000, a Thurston County judge released him on parole but ordered the DOC to monitor him closely, according to the lawsuits.

The department failed to do so, the lawsuits claim, and four women were subsequently killed or assaulted by Braae.

Susan Ault, 39, of Cathlamet, Wahkiakum County, had been dating Braae when she disappeared after the two fought on June 25, 2001.

Less than two weeks later, the body of Lori Jones, 44, was found under the bed in her home in Lacey, Thurston County.

On July 13, Braae's on- and off-again girlfriend, Marchelle Morgan, was found with a bullet in her brain in an apple orchard in Yakima.

The following day, he met Karen Peterson at a Yakima tavern. The suit accuses him of following her home, and raping and choking her until she lost consciousness.

Braae was convicted of the rape and murder of Jones and sentenced to 46 years in prison, which he will serve after he completes a nine-year sentence for aggravated assault and eluding police in Idaho.

Braae is also a suspect in the disappearance of two Oregon women and is believed to have assaulted or raped at least five women in addition to those named in the recently settled suits.

According to the settlement agreement, Jones' daughters will receive $3 million.

Peterson will get $250,000.

Ault's family will receive $750,000, and Morgan and her son will share the remaining $2.4 million.

Information from Seattle Times archives is contained in this story. Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com