Attorneys for wrongly convicted Beatrice Six ask judge to order defendants to pay $1.8M owed

The attorneys for six people wrongly convicted of a Gage County rape and killing asked a judge on Thursday to approve $1.8 million in fees and costs {after those wrongly convicted were awarded a $28 million verdict}.

The lawyers — Jeffry Patterson, Maren Lynn Chaloupka, Robert Bartle, Douglas Stratton, Matthew Kosmicki and Herbert Friedman — wrote in a brief filed in U.S. District Court that they collectively worked for 7,210 hours on the Beatrice Six civil case.

A federal court jury this month slammed Gage County with a $28 million verdict for a reckless investigation that sent the wrong people to prison for the 1985 killing of Helen Wilson. DNA testing in 2008 cleared the six, 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.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/beatrice-six-attorneys-ask-judge-to-order-defendants-to-pay/article_2a926a92-4fd2-11e6-9f15-7393170664d6.html