The state paid outside lawyers $169,120 to defend four current and former workers at a state mental hospital in Madison against a lawsuit by a patient — more than the recently announced settlement with the patient.

The bills, according to state Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh, included nearly $30,000 paid to represent a former Mendota Mental Health Institute employee whom state officials this month admitted had "inappropriate contact" with the patient.

Dennis Strong sued the state in January 2007 alleging a former female caregiver had an improper romantic relationship with him while he was a patient there.

Together with the $162,000 settlement reached earlier this month with Strong, the legal bills bring the total cost to taxpayers from the case to $331,120. That amount does not include the costs of state lawyers at the Department of Justice who defended the state, Cosh said.

Strong's attorney, Amy Scarr, said it was normal for defendants to want to wait and see the evidence against them before deciding to settle a case. At the same time, Scarr, who took over Strong's case in June, said the lawsuit appeared to take a long time to settle, which added to the state's legal bills.

"This case did seem to go on for quite a while," Scarr said.

Stephanie Marquis, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, which runs Mendota, said Tuesday she was unable to comment on the legal bills because the agency lawyer familiar with the case was not available.

But earlier this month, agency chief counsel Diane Welsh said the settlement was intended to put the incident behind the agency so "we can focus on our responsibility for those in our care and those we employ."

Strong was sent to Mendota after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity in December 2003 in Waupaca County to charges of battery and false imprisonment and has said he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He has since left the institution.

The state assigned three outside law firms to represent the four defendants in the case last year because of conflicts or potential conflicts between their interests and those of the state in the case, Cosh said. The firms, which had to be approved by Gov. Jim Doyle's office, were Cullen, Weston, Pines & Bach; Bell, Gierhart & Moore; and Lathrop & Clark.

"If there's a conflict or a perceived conflict, we can't represent them," Cosh said of the defendants.

Strong accused one of the four employees, former nurse's aide Kelly Vitense, of having sex with him unlawfully at Mendota. His lawsuit alleged other Mendota employees knew or should have known about the relationship.

Sex between a patient in an institution such as Mendota and a caregiver is always a felony sexual assault under state law, since the patient is considered not able to give consent. But no criminal charges have been filed in the case.

In a deposition in June 2007, Vitense acknowledged kissing Strong, sending him gifts and calling him nearly every day after she was forced to resign from Mendota. But Vitense, who was also sued by Strong, has denied they had sex.

Vitense said Tuesday she was thankful the case was over.

"Dennis isn't totally innocent in this," Vitense said. "I'm a good person, and this has affected my life drastically."

On June 29, 2007, the state decided to stop paying for a private lawyer to represent Vitense, court records show. State officials made that decision the same week the State Journal reported the state was paying thousands of dollars for private lawyers for Vitense and other current and former Mendota officials.

Scarr praised the settlement — in which Strong dropped all claims against both the state and Vitense — as fair and said she hoped it would lead to better training and oversight of Mendota employees, including lower-level workers such as Vitense. Better supervision of Vitense might have prevented her improper conduct or detected it earlier, she said.

"I feel management at Mendota failed not only Dennis Strong but Kelly Vitense as well," Scarr said.