LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office on Friday issued an opinion saying the state cannot loan money to Gage County so it can pay off a $28 million civil judgment for the wrongful conviction of six people in a 1985 murder case.
Because the damages were awarded under federal law, the state attorney general said, the Nebraska State Treasurer could not loan the county money.
“We are not aware of any other provision in Nebraska statute which would authorize the State Treasurer to loan money to a political subdivision in order for a judgment to be satisfied,” the opinion reads.
State Treasurer Don Stenberg had sought the legal opinion in the case of the so-called Beatrice Six - six people who were wrongfully convicted in the 1985 rape and murder of Beatrice resident Helen Wilson.
The six sued Gage County for violating their civil rights, and a federal jury awarded them $28.1 million, plus attorneys’ fees, in July after deciding the county was responsible for a reckless investigation and manufacturing evidence.
The Beatrice Six spent a combined 75 years in prison until DNA evidence cleared them and instead pointed to an Oklahoma City man who died in 1992 and had been in Beatrice the day Wilson was killed.
Stenberg had asked whether his office was obligated to loan the county money under Nebraska’s Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act. Under that law, any political subdivision of the state that is ordered to pay a judgment awarded in state court can apply for a loan - paid back at one-half of 1 percent interest - from the State Treasurer’s office.
No application for a loan under that law has ever been made to the treasurer.
Gage County Board Chairman Myron Dorn said Friday night that the board would meet in closed session Wednesday to discuss the county’s options for paying the jury award. He said he didn’t know when the board would make a decision.
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