Payment linked to state’s role in a wrongful conviction leading to 16 years in prison
TOPEKA — House and Senate lawmakers and Gov. Laura Kelly agreed Wednesday to settle for $11.25 million a lawsuit brought by exoneree Floyd Bledsoe that accused Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Jefferson County officials of misconduct in a notorious murder case.
The settlement recommended by the office of Attorney General Kris Kobach wasn’t adopted unanimously by the State Finance Council. It was endorsed by the governor, four senators and two representatives, but state Rep. Troy Waymaster, a Bunker Hill Republican who chairs the House budget committee, voted against the deal.
No member of the State Finance Council commented on the settlement during the public portion of the remotely conducted meeting of the council, which met for an hour behind closed doors.
Bledsoe, who spent 16 years in state prison for crimes later attributed to his brother, agreed to the settlement presented to the State Finance Council. The council acts in the absence of the Kansas Legislature.
His convictions were vacated and he was released from prison in 2015 one month after his brother, Tom Bledsoe, committed suicide in Bonner Springs and left suicide notes confessing to assaulting and killing Camille Arfmann, 14, in 1999. Initially, Tom Bledsoe had admitted to the murder but changed his story and implicated Floyd Bledsoe, who was charged with first-degree murder. No forensic evidence was presented at trial implicating Floyd Bledsoe, but he was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars.
An order signed prior to his trial by a representative of the KBI, the county sheriff and the local prosecutor put a halt to DNA testing of evidence in the case. In 2014, however, DNA testing of a vaginal swab matched Tom Bledsoe and excluded Floyd Bledsoe.
Floyd Bledsoe filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2016 alleging he was framed by a coalition of county and state law enforcement officers.
In 2019, the state of Kansas awarded $1 million to Floyd Bledsoe under a law dictating year-by-year compensation for wrongfully convicted Kansans. The Jefferson County Commission, which was liable for conduct of county officials in the murder case, agreed earlier this year to pay him $7.5 million over 10 years.
KHP trooper’s car chase
The State Finance Council unanimously approved a $500,000 settlement of the lawsuit brought against the Kansas Highway Patrol for the death of a motorist fatally injured in Topeka when a trooper forced a vehicle off the road.
The suit was brought by the family of Anita Benz, who died of injuries sustained in a March 2021 police chase. The suit was filed against the KHP alleging Trooper Justin Dobler and alleged he using lethal force to stop a vehicle that he contended had a cracked windshield.
Dobler, who was fired by KHP but won reinstatement to his job, began following a white Ford Crown Victoria that he suspected was stolen. The driver, Jeremy Cline, refused to pull over. Dobler pursued the car through residential streets, but didn’t stop when informed the car wasn’t stolen.
Despite warnings from KHP supervisors against using tactical maneuvers to immobilize vehicles in violation of agency policy, Dobler used his cruiser to run the Ford off the road. The Crown Victoria slammed into a utility pole, causing head trauma and other injuries that killed Benz.
Prosecutors charged Cline with felony murder, but the Kansas Court of Appeals this year upheld a district court judge’s decision to suppress evidence recovered after the vehicle maneuver by Dobler. The appellate court concluded Dobler’s actions were “an objectively unreasonable use of excessive force.”
In March, the family of Benz filed the lawsuit alleging excessive force and negligence. It said Dobler had been reprimanded by KHP in two previous vehicle chases. The suit named Dobler as well as Cline as defendants.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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