$12 million sought in 2006 death of disabled woman

A Seattle law firm has filed a $12 million claim on behalf of a developmentally disabled woman who died last year at a Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) facility.

Justine Booth, 33, died at Valley Medical Center in Renton on Oct. 17, 2006. Her family said she had been in a vegetative state since Oct. 10, after employees at a Kent-area State Operated Living Alternatives home found her unconscious in a bathtub. After Booth's death, a DSHS regional administrator said that the caregivers should never have left her alone in the tub.

King County prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against the two female caregivers who were supposed to check on Booth every four minutes.