DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court says the state had no legal responsibility to safeguard a 95-year-old woman who was raped by a violent sex offender placed in her nursing home after being released from state custody. The court ruling today (Friday) upholds a lower court’s decision to dismiss the state from a lawsuit filed by the women’s children.

The state received court approval in 2010 to release William Cubbage from a state-run sex offender program and place him in the Pomeroy Care Center, a northwest Iowa nursing home. Cubbage was 82 and had dementia. But within months, he sexually assaulted the woman and was sent to prison.

The Supreme Court said that because a court approved Cubbage’s release, the state had no further responsibility to monitor him. The children are pursuing a lawsuit against the nursing home.