A Bellingham woman won a $150,000 settlement against Island County over an incident in which former Deputy Jay Wallace was accused, and ultimately fired, for not adequately responding to her 911 calls for help.

But it’s not the end of the complicated controversy. Wallace filed his second claim for damages against the county last week, asking for $500,000 for loss of employment, loss of reputation, attorney costs, and “great emotional pain and suffering.”

Victoria Walker claimed she was raped and held prisoner at a Freeland home in February of 2006, but that Deputy Wallace never contacted her even though she called 911 twice.

Walker’s attorney, Alexander Ransom of Bellingham, filed the complaint for damages against the county and the Sheriff’s Office last fall. Originally, they asked for $500,000 in damages, then amended it to $250,000.

Officials at the Washington Counties Risk Pool, essentially the county’s insurance company, made the decision to settle with Victoria Walker, but the county admitted no liability.

“The insurer of the county felt that the costs of going to trial were greater than a settlement,” said Seattle attorney Duncan Fobes, who was retained by the risk pool to represent the county. “It’s basically an economic decision by the county’s risk pool.”

Wallace filed a $1.475 million claim for damages against the county a little over a year ago, alleging that former Island County Sheriff Mike Hawley fired him for political reasons. The claim was sent to the risk pool and denied. In the new claim, Wallace alleges that the county didn’t share vital evidence to his guild attorney for his defense against the termination.

“The county failed to disclose certain evidence that would have exonerated Wallace on an allegation of untruthfulness,” the complaint states. “Without limitation, that evidence included a sworn statement of the witness Michael Anderson, the sworn statement of an alleged victim, Victoria Walker, a report of investigation by Detective Plumberg, and all photos of the alleged crime scene.”

The complaint names Hawley, former Chief Administrative Deputy Jan Smith and others charged with providing the request for information as “persons involved in bringing about the injury or damage.”

All the legal wrangling centers around a couple of 911 hang-up calls from a home at Shoreview Drive in Freeland. Wallace responded to the first call and saw an individual who refused to answer the door. That night Wallace referred to the person as “he” or a “guy” 10 times in recorded conversations with dispatch operators, but he later wrote in a police report that he saw a woman.

Wallace left the scene and cleared the calls as “no police action required.” About two hours later, Wallace was again dispatched to a second 911 hang-up call at the same location. He didn’t respond at all and cleared the call as “no police action required” one minute later.

It turned out that Walker had made the 911 calls. She claimed that she was held captive at the home by Matthew Friar, who allegedly assaulted her, tied her up and sexually assaulted her. The next morning she escaped from the home and reported what happened.

Friar was charged in the case, but the prosecutor dismissed it after Walker wouldn’t cooperate with investigators and then disappeared. Friar died from an overdose in Portland, Ore., in 2007.

What made the case especially sensational was the fact that Wallace had announced his candidacy for sheriff before the incident occurred. Wallace accused Hawley of trying to ruin his chances in the election by accusing him of misdeeds, though Hawley had announced he wasn’t running again.

After an internal and criminal investigation, Hawley fired Wallace for dereliction of duty and falsifying his police report. The state Attorney General Office accused Wallace of lying on his police report and charged him with false swearing, but the case was dismissed over a constitutional issue.

The deputy’s guild backed Wallace and took the termination to arbitration, but the arbitrator ruled against Wallace in a strongly-worded decision.

Wallace, Hawley and Ransom didn’t immediately return calls for comment.