State settles lawsuit with woman injured by felon

A Burien woman who suffered severe brain injuries when she was struck by a car driven by a mentally ill felon has agreed to settle a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections for $4.25 million.

Kathie Larson, 52, was walking across a Tacoma street on June 26, 2008, when she was struck by a stolen car being driven by Aiyisha Gillespie, 30, who was under supervision by the Department of Corrections (DOC) following an earlier conviction. Larson was hospitalized for six months and is still recovering, said Darrell Cochran, her lawyer.

Cochran said the Department of Corrections knew that Gillespie was mentally ill and should have been watching her more closely. Larson sued the DOC in September.

"In the seventeen months in which the DOC was responsible for the supervision and control of Ms. Gillespie, she violated the conditions of her release many times, committed additional crimes and her mental health severely deteriorated to the point at which she posed an unreasonable danger to the community," according to the lawsuit.

DOC Secretary Eldon Vail said Wednesday that community corrections staffers were handling Gillespie's case appropriately. However, he conceded that it would have been a tough civil case to win before a jury because of the severity of Larson's injuries. "We don't think the supervision in this case was bad," Vail said.

Vail, in a news release, added, "we did not want to risk paying even more if a jury decided the victim should receive a higher compensation."

Gillespie was charged with two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, possession of a stolen vehicle and failure to remain at an injury accident in connection with Larson's case. The criminal trial was slated to begin this week but has been delayed.

At the time of the crash, Gillespie was being supervised by the DOC after her release from prison on a third-degree assault conviction for deliberately striking a truck with her vehicle in South Tacoma, according to Larson's lawsuit. In that September 2006 incident, she tried to run down an unknown man who was in the street and ended up striking three cars. Nobody was seriously hurt.

Gillespie had initially been charged with second-degree assault but later pleaded guilty to the reduced assault count, according to Pierce County court records.

"She was a dangerous mentally ill offender. She repeated the same crime that got her onto supervision in the first place," Cochran said on Wednesday.

Gillespie has been diagnosed with a type of bipolar disorder that included "psychotic symptoms," Cochran said. She has undergone multiple mental health evaluations since her arrest in connection with the 2008 crash, according to Pierce County court records.

Larson's daughter said Wednesday that she is hopeful the settlement will force DOC staff to more carefully supervise mentally ill felons.

"We may not see changes right now, but we certainly hope this will make them think about things more thoroughly before making any decisions," said Justina Schwartz, of Seattle. "No amount of money could take the place of what she's been through or make it suddenly better."

Larson is still meeting regularly with doctors and taking slow steps toward improvement, Schwartz said.

"She's making progress, little steps at a time. She's a trooper and compared to where she was two years ago, she's in good shape," Schwartz said.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com