Post by Logan on Jul 7, 2016 23:23:49 GMT -6
Gage County taxpayers likely on hook for $28.1 million settlement
Sometime between the wrongful arrests and convictions of six people for the 1985 murder of Helen Wilson and the six suing Gage County officials for putting them in prison, the county switched insurance carriers.
Officials are unclear how or when that happened, but one thing is certain in the wake of a $28.1 million federal civil rights judgment leveled at Gage County, Sheriff’s Deputy Burt Searcey and psychologist and reserve Deputy Wayne Price: Gage County does not have liability insurance to protect it.
Myron Dorn, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, said the liability insurance never lapsed.
But the switch in providers — and the failure of past county boards to continue to pay its former carrier for coverage on “prior bad acts” — means Gage County will likely be on the hook for the damages itself.
Read more: columbustelegram.com/news/state-and-regional/gage-county-taxpayers-likely-on-hook-for-million-settlement/article_6aa5bceb-8a4f-5d6a-8ce2-9d811ced5db4.html
Sometime between the wrongful arrests and convictions of six people for the 1985 murder of Helen Wilson and the six suing Gage County officials for putting them in prison, the county switched insurance carriers.
Officials are unclear how or when that happened, but one thing is certain in the wake of a $28.1 million federal civil rights judgment leveled at Gage County, Sheriff’s Deputy Burt Searcey and psychologist and reserve Deputy Wayne Price: Gage County does not have liability insurance to protect it.
Myron Dorn, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, said the liability insurance never lapsed.
But the switch in providers — and the failure of past county boards to continue to pay its former carrier for coverage on “prior bad acts” — means Gage County will likely be on the hook for the damages itself.
Read more: columbustelegram.com/news/state-and-regional/gage-county-taxpayers-likely-on-hook-for-million-settlement/article_6aa5bceb-8a4f-5d6a-8ce2-9d811ced5db4.html