A former inmate at the Washington County Jail is receiving a cash settlement from the county. At their meeting Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved a $260,000 settlement. The amount was agreed upon by the attorney hired by Washington County’s insurance provider, ICAP, and Martin Medrano-Vargas’s attorney. The county will pay $5,000. ICAP will cover the rest.

In a prepared statement, Washington County Supervisor Jack Seward said ICAP took “into consideration the exposure of the county for liability in a civil trial, which is a far lower standard of proof than in a criminal trial.” According to Seward, County Attorney Shawn Showers agreed this is in the best interest of the county. Seward stated if approved by the federal district court judge assigned to this case, the settlement will put an end to all of Vargas’s claims against the Washington County, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the jail and employees.

Vargas is an undocumented immigrant who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a fellow inmate while being held at the jail on identity theft charges in 2011. In January of 2013, a Washington County jury found Rudolph Edwards of Illinois not guilty of raping Vargas. For more information, visit KCIIradio.com.

For more information on the initial claim, click here.

For information on the trial that followed, click here.