Settlement reached in Ferguson case

A judge has awarded more than $11 million to Ryan Ferguson, his family and attorneys in a settlement with Columbia police detectives.

Ferguson will receive $10 million while about $1,004,000 million will go toward legal expenses. Ferguson settled his civil rights lawsuit with six Columbia police detectives that accused him of killing Kent Heitholt in 2001. Those detectives include John Short, Bryan Liebhart, Jeff Nichols, Jeff Westbrook, Lloyd Simons and Latisha Storer. Only Stroer still works for CPD.

Ferguson sued the officers, along with the city and former Boone County Prosecutor Kevin Crane, in 2014 after his release from prison. Ferguson claimed the six detectives fabricated evidence, including witness statements, to frame Ferguson for the murder of Kent Heitholt in 2001.

About $150,000 will go to Ferguson’s family and $854,000 will go to his attorney, Kathleen Zellner. Ferguson’s family said it incurred $150,000 worth of legal fees for his trial defense.

Zellner said Monday’s award from Judge Nanette Laughrey may be the highest given on a claim for fabricated evidence. Ferguson and Zellner sought emotional damages done for the near-ten years he spent incarcerated.

According to the settlement agreement, the City of Columbia will only pay $2.75 million of the money due. Ferguson will regain the rest by other means, including insurance held by the other individual defendants.

The settlement agreement notes that the detectives deny that they did anything wrong or unlawful in the investigation. Brad Letterman, attorney for the detectives, said the detectives would settle the matter on their liability, and would argue the matter on damages owed in court.

In court, Ferguson detailed the struggles he faced in prison, and the continuing struggles out of it. While describing his life before his arrest, Ferguson considered himself an outgoing child. His parents allowed him to see different parts of the world on family trips. He left for Kansas City to start community college at the start of 2004.

“I just loved life,” Ferguson said. “I felt like that…I could have accomplished anything.”

Ferguson was arrested on March 10, 2004 at his apartment complex. The next nine years Ferguson would spend in the Boone County Jail and Jefferson City Correctional Center, accused and then convicted of Heitholt’s murder, alongside Charles Erickson, who pleaded guilty. Ferguson said the jail was one of the worst places he’s ever been, describing one assault over the television volume. In jail, Ferguson said he suffered his first panic attack.

“That changes you,” Ferguson said. “You give up. Nothing you say or do has any meaning.”

After 84,000 hours of incarceration, the Western District Court of Appeals decided prosecutors had not disclosed some evidence at Ferguson’s trial, and sent it back. Ferguson was freed after prosecutors decided not to retry the case.

Since then, Ferguson has published a health and wellness book. He co-hosted a show on MTV called “Unlocking the Truth,” which investigated questionable convictions. He made $63,000 on the book and more than $100,000 on the show, Ferguson said in court. MTV decided not to renew the show for a second season, and Ferguson said he remained unemployed.

Ferguson expressed doubt about his prospects of returning to school. For what he wants to do, he wouldn’t be done until he was 40. His mistrust of others has only grown, saying it was hard to start new relationships, saying each person he meets is “an exposure to the potential of chaos.” He constantly worries about being able to prove where he is at all times, in fear police might accuse him of something at a time and place he can’t account for. The fear hangs over him like a storm cloud, he said, that follows him every place he’s been since his release.

“As far as I know, this could be the last five minutes I have for the next decade or the rest of my life,” Ferguson told reporters after the hearing. “It could happen to any one of us, it could happen to you, it could happen to anyone listening to this. And that’s terrifying. And I think we should all protect ourselves from that.”

Zellner said the monetary award is a significant amount for an issue over fabricated evidence. Emotional damages are hard to quantify, Zellner said, but hoped the award would have an impact on similar cases across the country.

“[Fabrication] is one of the most severe violations you can have, and as a police officer, ethical violations you can have,” Zellner said.

“We’ve seen in my case and many other cases that police and prosecutors will take the lives of innocent people, and they don’t care about it,” Ferguson said. “And they’ll do it again and again.”

The settlement also waives the officers’ rights to appeal Judge Laughrey’s award. $100,000 will also be held in escrow for three years for the six detectives, according to the agreement, to use for other liability insurance for any other civil litigation that may arise from the Heitholt investigation.