Family of 'Cowboy Mike' victim sues state
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington state is being sued over the rape and murder of a Lacey woman by a man known as "Cowboy Mike."
The case was brought by survivors of 44-year-old Lori Jones, who was found dead under her apartment bed in June 2001. Investigators said she'd been strangled and repeatedly stabbed with a screwdriver.
They accuse the state Corrections Department of being lax in keeping tabs on 48-year-old Michael John Braae, a former country singer who was convicted of killing her.
According to the lawsuit, a judge ordered the state to supervise Braae more closely a year before the killing.
Braae remains under investigation in the disappearance of two of his former girlfriends in Washington and the death of a third in Clackamas County, Ore.
Braae was arrested in Idaho in 2001 after leading police on a 40-mile car chase, which ended when he jumped from a 40-foot-high bridge into the Snake River. An Idaho sheriff's deputy testified that Braae was picked up by a police boat after trying to drown a police dog sent into the water to catch him.
A separate Braae trial in Yakima in 2006 ended in a mistrial when a Yelm woman who had been shot in the head was unable to testify because of her brain injury.
The case was brought by survivors of 44-year-old Lori Jones, who was found dead under her apartment bed in June 2001. Investigators said she'd been strangled and repeatedly stabbed with a screwdriver.
They accuse the state Corrections Department of being lax in keeping tabs on 48-year-old Michael John Braae, a former country singer who was convicted of killing her.
According to the lawsuit, a judge ordered the state to supervise Braae more closely a year before the killing.
Braae remains under investigation in the disappearance of two of his former girlfriends in Washington and the death of a third in Clackamas County, Ore.
Braae was arrested in Idaho in 2001 after leading police on a 40-mile car chase, which ended when he jumped from a 40-foot-high bridge into the Snake River. An Idaho sheriff's deputy testified that Braae was picked up by a police boat after trying to drown a police dog sent into the water to catch him.
A separate Braae trial in Yakima in 2006 ended in a mistrial when a Yelm woman who had been shot in the head was unable to testify because of her brain injury.