(Radio Iowa) -The state is asking the Iowa Supreme Court to end a lawsuit by the wife of correctional officer killed in 2021 at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Sara Montague filed a wrongful death lawsuit against 26 state employees alleging they knew about inadequate training and policies that led to the murder of her husband Robert McFarland. Patrick Valencia with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office told the Iowa Supreme Court that Montague didn’t follow the rules for filing claims against all 26 employees.

“And the compliance with the rules is key, because that’s what the legislature has said you must do to take advantage of the limited waiver of sovereign immunity,” Valencia says. Montague’s lawyer, Robert Rehkemper, says the state withheld information that would’ve allowed them to name defendants earlier in the process.

“I think there’s a distinction too when we’re dealing with a death. I can’t ask Mr. McFarland, who messed up in the situation that got you hurt? I can’t ask him. I have to look at the investigative files,” he says. “But in this situation the investigative files are completely within the possession of the employer.”

Robert McFarland and a nurse at the prison were both killed in an attack by two inmates.