There could it be a glimmer of hope in the wake of a series of legal setbacks for Gage County in the very expensive Beatrice Six case.
Gage County Attorney Roger Harris says the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the plaintiffs’ attorneys to file a response in the county’s appeal of the verdict and the multi-million-dollar civil rights judgment.
“The Supreme Court has requested that they file a response, so, obviously they’re looking at it, which is a good thing, because a lot of times, these things are summarily written off,” Harris says. “At least from our attorney’s standpoint, the Supreme Court is taking a look.”
The nation’s highest court has not specifically stated whether it will hear the county’s appeal but did set a deadline for the plaintiff response in the case — February 8th. Harris says there is no information regarding the court’s timetable, beyond that.
Six people exonerated through DNA evidence by the state in the 1985 murder and rape of a Beatrice woman won a judgment of more than 28-million dollars, alleging a reckless investigation in Gage County resulted in the six serving decades in prison.
This year, Gage County began budgeting to pay off the judgment over the next several years, raising the county’s total tax rate to its ceiling.
By Doug Kennedy, KWBE, Beatrice