""I didn't have anything to do with this!" Livers said.
The back and forth battle continues. The investigators don't believe Livers, and they don't let up.
"Your ass is on the line. You're on the line. You're in the frying pan right now," Lambert said.
Matthew Livers in custody.
"You don't admit to me what you've done, I am going to walk out that door to hang your ass from the highest tree," Schenk said. "You're done. I will go after death penalty. I will push and push to make sure you go down hard for this."
It's those tactics, in part, that prompted Livers to file a civil lawsuit against he two investigators, who wielded repeated threats of the death penalty and withheld food for 11 hours."
KETV NEWSWATCH 7;
PHOTO: DAVID KOFOED;
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BACKGROUND: (David) Kofoed's work came into question after his 2006 investigation into the slaying of a rural Cass County couple, Wayne and Sharmon Stock. Detectives zeroed in on the couple's nephew and his cousin, but found no physical evidence tying the two to the killings. They managed to get a confession from the nephew, but he retracted it the next day. A day later, Kofoed said he found a drop of one of the victims' blood in a car linked to the suspects that had already been combed over by another forensic investigator. The suspects were charged with murder and jailed for several months before being released because prosecutors determined the confession was unreliable and didn't fit the facts of the case. A man and woman from Wisconsin eventually pleaded guilty to murdering the couple and are serving life prison terms. The FBI began investigating Kofoed after the slain couple's nephew filed a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations. The agency's findings led authorities to charge Kofoed with evidence tampering in April. During his trial, Kofoed blamed the speck of blood found in the car on accidental contamination. But Cass County District Judge Randall Rehmeier said he didn't buy it, and that the evidence showed Kofoed intentionally planted the blood in the car...Kofoed has not been charged in any other investigation. He remained free on bond, but was due back in court for sentencing. He faced up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. ...Before issuing his verdict, Rehmeier said there were similarities between that investigation and one in which a man, Ivan Henk, was convicted of murdering his young son, whose body was never found. In both cases, there were confessions by the suspects and a lack of physical evidence to corroborate them until Kofoed found a speck of blood that had previously been overlooked, the judge said.
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"OMAHA, Neb. An interrogation tape showing the unrelenting tactics of two investigators questioning a suspect in the slayings of a Nebraska farm couple gives a better understanding of how a person can be coerced into a false confession -- including murder," The KETV Newswatch 7 story published on April 12, 2010 began, under the heading, "Tape Shows Tactics Used To Coerce False Confession: Matthew Livers Spent Months In Prison For Murder."
"Eight days after Wayne and Sharmon Stock were found dead in their Murdock home, Matthew Livers sat under arrest in a Cass County interrogation room." the story continued.
"At the start of the 11-hour session, Livers repeatedly and defiantly proclaimed his innocence to Nebraska State Patrol investigator Bill Lambert and Cass County investigator Earl Schenk.
"How am I involved in this? I'm not," Livers told them on the tape.
"You are involved in it," Lambert replied.
"How?"
"I can read the questions they asked you and your emotions are just flying off the chart … your subconscious body is telling the machine -- you can not fool it," Lambert said.
"I didn't have anything to do with this!" Livers said.
The back and forth battle continues. The investigators don't believe Livers, and they don't let up.
"Your ass is on the line. You're on the line. You're in the frying pan right now," Lambert said.
Matthew Livers in custody.
"You don't admit to me what you've done, I am going to walk out that door to hang your ass from the highest tree," Schenk said. "You're done. I will go after death penalty. I will push and push to make sure you go down hard for this."
It's those tactics, in part, that prompted Livers to file a civil lawsuit against he two investigators, who wielded repeated threats of the death penalty and withheld food for 11 hours.
Livers and another suspect, Nicholas Sampson, spent months in prison before the real killers were found -- two drug-addled teenagers from Wisconsin who robbed and killed the couple during a cross-country road trip.
Livers' lawyer said his client repeated his denial 102 times during the interrogation. Livers gave in at the end.
The lawyer said the investigators spoon-fed the facts of the case to a man who is mildly mentally-challenged.
"I think I shot him in the head," Livers eventually told the two on the tape.
"He's not moving anymore, is he?" Schenk said, motioning to the ground. "You're aunt's not screaming anymore, is she?"
"No," livers said.
"OK. Then what'd you do?"
"I went out, I guess. I don't remember," Livers said.
Raneta Mack
KETV NewsWatch 7 took the tape to Creighton University law professor Raneta Mack, who said people do confess to crimes they didn’t commit in order to end a harsh interrogation.
"The reality is, most do this when they simply want to get out of the interrogation room. They do not want to be there with police," Mack said. "They have the mistaken belief -- give them what they want and I can go home."
Livers' lawyer said that's exactly what happened.
"When you tell a suspect if he doesn't confess, you're going to hang him from the highest tree -- that crosses the line into malice, as far as I'm concerned," said Locke Bowman.
In the windowless interrogation room, before the false confession, a defeated Livers is seen telling investigators he just wants to go home.
"We can't do that. We have to finish this," Schenk said.
"After that, can I go home?" Livers asked.
"No, sir," Schenk said.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers cited studies where the accused confess simply to end an abusive interrogation.
According to the Innocence Project, about 25 percent of the 240 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in the U.S. involved some sort of false confession.
Livers and Sampson both have lawsuits pending, alleging investigators violated their civil rights.
The Nebraska State Patrol and the Cass County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on this report."
The story and excerpts of the video can be found at:
http://www.ketv.com/news/23124215/detail.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
