Butler County commissioners signed off on a $20,000 out-of-court settlement Wednesday with a Butler woman who claimed the county's children and youth services agency had wrongly removed her children from her home.

Solicitor Julie Graham said settling the claim is less expensive than defending the county against it, and it includes no admission of wrongdoing. She estimated that legal fees and the cost of investigation would amount to $60,000 to $70,000, with Insurance paying all of that amount except $25,000, which would come directly from county coffers.

The money goes to Regina Bush, the mother of four children who were removed from her home for a period of several months, Graham said. Bush filed the suit in U.S. Federal Court in Pittsburgh in February 2003.

The suit was filed one month after the county settled a similar claim with a county woman who contended custody of her child was taken away from her unduly.

The county paid Sherrie Klingensmith $5,000. She said children and youth services had taken her child "without due process of law" in the summer of 2002.