PHOENIX (AP) – A former Lewiston man was at the center of a legal dispute this week after a prison worker he is accused of raping in Arizona reached a tentative agreement with officials in that state.

Steven Coy, 39, remained in custody at the Maine State Prison in Warren while a woman he is accused of attacking during a 15-day prison siege was in court seeking compensation.

Although the 55-year-old woman’s attorney wouldn’t discuss details of the deal, he said the settlement was fair compensation for a rape victim. Attorney Albert M. Flores also said the amount wasn’t the $5 million his client had sought in her lawsuit.

The settlement stemmed from a mediation hearing Monday and still needs the approval of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Flores anticipates the approval could come in February.

The woman filed a lawsuit in June, claiming the state had been negligent by allowing a rapist and another violent felon to work with her in the kitchen. Her suit also cited poor training, staff incompetence and lax security at the prison.

She was working for a private vendor at a kitchen in the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis when the standoff began on Jan. 18, 2004.

During the early morning hours that day, inmates Ricky Wassenaar and Steven Coy, armed with makeshift knives, overpowered the only guard on duty in kitchen. Then, Coy, a convicted rapist, hog-tied, beat and raped the woman.

The inmates eventually imprisoned two guards and took control of an armed tower. The standoff they began didn’t end until 15 days later, when negotiators coaxed them out of the tower.

Since then, the Arizona Department of Corrections has made changes geared toward preventing another standoff. In the prison kitchen where the crisis began – with one inmate taking a serving paddle the size of a boat oar to use as a weapon – spatulas, ladles and knives are tethered, padlocked and inventoried.

Coy has pleaded guilty to all charges stemming from the standoff and was sentenced to seven life terms. Currently, he’s serving the time in a Maine prison, where he was moved as part of a deal made to end the standoff.

Wassenaar is awaiting trial on charges related to the standoff, including escape, attempted murder, kidnapping and the sexual assault of the female correctional officer who was held hostage. The woman remains unemployed and is still recovering from the attack.

Coy was sent to Maine in a prisoner exchange that sent convicted Lewiston murderer Brandon Thongsavanh to a correctional facility in Arizona. Thongsavanh was sent back to Maine late last year while awaiting a new trial on a charge that he stabbed to death a Bates College student in March of 2002. Thongsavanh was convicted of murder in the case but has since won an appeal of the jury decision.

Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

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