Tamaki Law obtained a $6.4 million settlement from the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) on behalf of victims of a violent crime spree committed by serial rapist and murderer Michael “Cowboy Mike” Braae.
The lawsuits filed against the DOC alleged that the DOC negligently supervised Michael Braae when he was on parole for a variety of violent criminal convictions.
Under Washington law, the Department of Corrections has a duty to properly and carefully parolees and take steps to ensure that they are not endangering the public by continuing to commit violent crimes.
In its investigation of the DOC’s supervision of Braae, Tamaki Law discovered that the DOC misclassified Braae as a low risk offender when in fact he should have been classified as a higher risk offender, which would have resulted in closer supervision. Because of this misclassification, the DOC failed to administer any level of supervision, which allowed Braae to use drugs and alcohol, and commit violent crimes all over the country for nearly a decade.
In addition to helping the families of the victims, Tamaki Law’s litigation of these cases helped expose the negligence of the DOC and ensure that future changes in the DOC’s procedures were made to help protect other innocent people.