Three Washington state prison officers have been fired and four others, including two lieutenants, have been disciplined for mistakes made before and after a corrections officer was killed at the Monroe Reformatory in January, reports the Seattle Times. Two of the fired officers lied to police and Department of Corrections investigators, and a third was terminated for being away from his post outside the prison chapel, where officer Jayme Biendl worked alone.
Biendl, 34, the “officer of the year” in 2008, was not found by fellow officers for nearly two hours after being strangled Jan. 29 with an amplifier cord. She was the first officer killed in a state prison in 32 years. Although Byron Scherf, a lifer, was found outside the chapel with blood on his collar, officers did not search the chapel. Scherf later confessed to the slaying and is awaiting trial. The corrections department withholds names of employees in news releases about disciplinary matters, but the Seattle Times has filed a public-disclosure request seeking their identities.