A suit against the Kingfi sher County Sheriff’s Department alleging sexual misconduct in the jail regarding a female prisoner has been settled at a cost of $70,000.

Sheriff Dennis Banther, who attended a settlement hearing at the Western District of the U.S. Court, said the suit arose “from potential illegal action of an employee having sex with an inmate at our old facility.”

He added: “It was claimed in the lawsuit that the activity happened on an evening when we had only one detention officer on hand.

“Our new facility was built with safeguards in place to prevent any activity like this from happening.

“We have cameras covering every angle of the facility as well as a tower operator doing the same.

“We also have a minimum of three detention officers on each shift.

“Toward the end of the suit the former employee was dismissed as a defendant, leaving me (sheriff) as the sole defendant.

“Some of the specifics of the case: she (the plaintiff) claimed to have been raped on July 4. He (the jail employee) was terminated for unrelated issues the last week of August.

“She (the plaintiff) didn’t report the rape until the end of September,” adding, “That seemed a long time to report an issue.”

Kingfisher County Comfor mission Chairman Heath Dobrovolny participated in the settlement hearing as an insurance board member of the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (ACCO), which is the county’s insurer.

“I’m virtually a pawn at the settlement hearing,” Banther said. “I can either accept what they think or proceed to trial with a new attorney and take it (the legal expense) on personally.

“While I maintain I did things correctly, I’m also not going to spend thousands to defend it,” Banther said.

The jail has its own supplemental policy under the ACCO insurance, Banther said.

The policies are provided through the same insurance company.

“We have a deductible (with the ACCO policy),” Banther said. Any judgment over the deductible is covered by the insurance company.

Dobrovolny said none of the expense will fall on county property taxpayers.

The federal suit has been dismissed with the acceptance of the settlement decision.