STORY: "Beatrice Six win millions in civil rights claims, but 'no amount of money' will replace years lost, one family says," by reporter Joe Duggan, published by the World-Herald an July 15, 2016.
GIST: A former Gage County, Nebraska, prosecutor decided against running
DNA tests in 1989 to help resolve unanswered questions in the cold-case
killing of a Beatrice grandmother. One reason? The $350 lab fees were deemed too expensive. A
federal court jury on Wednesday slammed Gage County with a $28 million
verdict for a reckless investigation that sent the wrong people to
prison for the 1985 rape and homicide of Helen Wilson. DNA testing in
2008 cleared the six people who collectively spent more than 70 years
locked up. In 1989, investigators relied heavily on
confessions from three suspects with histories of mental illness, two
of whom told authorities that their memories came from dreams and
nightmares. And investigators proceeded with the prosecutions even
though none of the six perfectly matched the perpetrator’s blood or
could be conclusively tied to his semen..........The case stemmed from the
1985 rape and homicide of 68-year-old Helen Wilson in her apartment
near downtown Beatrice. In 1989, a jury convicted White of first-degree
murder, and his co-defendants either pleaded guilty or no contest to
reduced charges. White won a
long legal fight for DNA testing on preserved crime scene evidence in
2008. The results overturned White’s conviction, and a subsequent
multiagency task force investigation prompted official pardons for the
five others. The tests also
identified the killer as Bruce Allen Smith, a onetime Beatrice resident
who died in 1992 in Oklahoma. Smith emerged as a suspect in 1985, but a
mistake on a blood test led investigators to rule him out. Sheriff
Jerry DeWitt and Deputies Burt Searcey and Wayne Price also were named
as defendants in the case. DeWitt, who died in 2012, was represented by
his estate. Jurors were asked
to decide if the investigators from the Gage County Sheriff’s Office
were reckless, if they manufactured false evidence or if they engaged in
a conspiracy. The jury found in favor of the plaintiffs on some of the
reckless-investigation and false-evidence claims, but on none of the
conspiracy claims. Gage County
was held liable, as were Searcey and Price, both of whom remain employed
by the Sheriff’s Office. However, DeWitt’s estate was not found liable.
Richard Smith, the former county attorney who decided against running
DNA tests in 1989, was not a defendant because the law grants absolute
immunity to prosecutors. The
six plaintiffs accused the investigators of coercing false confessions
and ignoring forensic evidence that proved they were not the
perpetrators. The investigators argued that the three cooperating
suspects were represented by legal counsel, that they made statements to
investigators voluntarily and that they swore under oath that they were
being truthful. Lawyer Herb
Friedman, who represented plaintiff Dean, said Wednesday’s verdict
reinforced that police need to seek the truth, not just arrests and
convictions. “This type of conduct simply isn’t going to be accepted. That was the strong message the jury sent today,” Friedman said."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/beatrice-six-win-millions-in-civil-rights-claims-in-wrongful/article_cfb0beb4-3fc6-11e6-b40a-c78b5ad1ca04.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses
several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of
the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this
powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and
myself get more out of the site.
The
Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty
incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the
harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into
pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology
system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent
stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please
send any comments or information on other cases and issues of
interest to the readers of this blog to:
hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
