LINCOLN, Neb. (Legal Newsline) – The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit brought by the survivor of a double-homicide who was sexually assaulted while 911 responders tried to find her.
The court on Jan. 29 ruled against Julie Edwards, who was kidnapped in February 2016 by her ex-boyfriend as she moved her stuff out of his house. When her brothers were taking her last box, Kenneth Clark shot them both and zip-tied Julie.
John Edwards called the Douglas County 911 call center while Clark took Julie upstairs, telling the operator that he had been shot by Ken Clark – but he was unable to provide the street address of the house.
He called 911 at 10:12 a.m. and 10:33 a.m. Law enforcement wasn’t dispatched to Clark’s house until 10:54 and arrived four minutes later. A standoff lasted into the afternoon, until Clark shot himself. Both John and Jason Edwards died.
In the time 911 tried to figure out Clark’s address, Julie said she was sexually assaulted. She sued Douglas County over the delay, but the court found that, under the Political Subdivisions Tort Claims Act, it can’t be found liable for an assault.
“Nothing in this opinion should be understood to diminish the seriousness of the assault experienced by Edwards or to excuse any mishandling of the 911 calls for help,” Justice Stephanie Stacy wrote.
“But the Legislature has expressly preserved the government’s sovereign immunity for negligence claims that arise out of assaults, and Edwards has brought such a claim. The provisions of § 13-910(7) are plain and unambiguous, and this court must apply those provisions as written.”
Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman was not convinced, however, and issued a dissenting opinion that says Douglas County introduced its defense for the first during the appeal.
“Unlike the County’s approach in the trial court, where the County asserted that it owed no duty to Edwards, about which I make no comment, the County jumped on the Moser bandwagon for the first time late in the appeal and now contends that the complaint should be dismissed based on the intentional tort assault exception to the waiver of sovereign immunity,” Miller-Lerman wrote.
“Although Edwards may have a burden in being able to prove negligence by the County, in my view, the case should not be dismissed based on sovereign immunity, and further, the record showed sufficient facts to survive a motion for summary judgment.”