Gage County Wins Court Appeal in Bid to Collect Beatrice 6 Insurance Settlement.

The Nebraska Supreme Court provided a rare victory for Gage County as it struggles to pay off millions of dollars in damages to the six people wrongly accused of murder.

The insurance policy purchased by Gage County should cover at least some of the 28 million dollars in damages resulting from sheriff investigators sending eight people to prison for a murder they did not commit. That’s the

opinion from the Nebraska Supreme Court

, which sided with county officials.

This is the latest chapter in the tangled story of the Beatrice 6 who spent decades in prison for the 1985 killing of Helen Wilson. Six people with crimes related to Wilson’s death: Joseph White, James Dean, Kathleen Gonzalez, Thomas Winslow, Ada Joann Taylor, and Debra Shelden.

Gage County Sheriff Jerry DeWitt and five deputies, including psychologist Wayne Price, took over the investigation from Beatrice Police in 1989. The officers prompted false confessions from the six and manufactured evidence.

Later cleared of the charges, the group successfully sued for damages.

When Gage County sought to cash in the insurance policy protecting it from liability in lawsuits, they assumed it would help cover the damages. Their insurance company, Employers Mutual Casualty Company, rejected the claim. The county sued but a Lancaster County District Court judge tossed the case before it went to trial.

Gage County appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.

Much of the disagreement between county officials and the insurance company hinged on whether law enforcement officers were defined as a “profession” or and “occupation” for the purposes of the policy.

District Court Judge Jodi Nelson, hearing the case in Lancaster County, determined the specialized training judgment required by police officers were cause to list the job as a profession.

The Supreme Court Friday ordered the District Court to reconsider the county’s claim. The high court opinion found there was clear language in the three original insurance policies covering cases where deputies and investigators might be sued for false arrest or other misconduct.

The opinion notes police work “is not listed in the exclusive list of professions” in one of the policies and law enforcement “is listed as an ‘occupation’ rather than a profession in the umbrella policy. The court stated because the definitions are included in the policy written by the insurer, no other definitions in other court cases apply in this specific instance.

Gage County, deeply in debt due to the damage claims, recently raised taxes to begin the process of paying the claims due the Beatrice Six.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Gerald Lamkin as the sheriff's deputy and psychologist involved in the Beatrice 6 investigation. That party should have been identified as Wayne Price. This story has been updated with the correction. NET News regrets the error.