In a document filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, attorney Katherine O'Dell, representing McDonald County, told the judge the case will be dismissed in the near future:
COMES NOW Defendant McDonald County (on behalf of itself and the McDonald County Sheriff’s Office), and advises the Court that all parties in the above-captioned matter have reached a settlement as to all parties and all claims.
The filing did not reveal any amounts for the settlement.
In the lawsuit, Eastburn, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for the murder of her husband and was paroled in November 2017 after spending 25 years behind bars, claims jailer Terrie Zornes raped her and then the crime was covered up by Zornes' fellow workers at the Sheriff's Office.
In 2011, Zornes was charged with raping a teenage prisoner in 1994, but the charge was dropped when he pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl.
The petition says Zornes forced Eastburn, who was 17 at the time, to go into the property room, raped her, then destroyed evidence by tampering with the surveillance tapes.
Zornes raped Eastburn between December 1993 and February 1994, according to the lawsuit.
Eastburn told her mother about the attack, according to the petition, but when her mother took the information to Zornes' superiors, Eastburn's nightmare grew even worse.
The lawsuit alleged the following:
-Eastburn was placed in solitary confinement and not allowed to make calls or have visitors.
-At other times, drunk prisoners were placed in her cell instead of in the drunk tank.
-A pregnancy test was performed on her, then she was taken to a medical facility and forced to undergo a procedure that caused "significant bleeding from her vagina."
-After that, she was forced to take birth control pills.
-Death threats were leveled against her if she told anyone that Zornes had raped her. Sheriff's Office employees told her a number of ways that could make it look like her death was "justified," including making it appear that she committed suicide by hanging herself in her cell.
-Eastburn's family members were threatened.
Eventually, according to the lawsuit, Eastburn agreed not to say anything.
The six-count lawsuit accused the Sheriff's Office and Zornes of violation of due process, the sheriff's office of negligent supervision and training and Zornes was the sole defendant on counts of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.
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