Jury awards Ryan Ferguson nearly $38 million in damages after insurance company fails to pay settlement

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

An insurance company was ordered to pay Ryan Ferguson nearly $38 million in damages after it failed to pay him from a previous wrongful conviction case.

Ferguson’s attorney, Michael Berry, provided ABC 17 News with a copy of a Cole County jury verdict that ruled in favor of Ferguson and six former Columbia Police Department officers after Traveler’s Insurance failed to pay Ferguson money owed from the trial. The jury assessed Ferguson’s compensatory damages at $2.9 million and an additional $35 million in punitive damages. The jury handed down the verdict on Friday.

Ferguson declined to comment when contacted by ABC 17 News, but Kathleen Zellner — who is also an attorney representing Ferguson — told ABC 17 News in a statement:

“This ruling will have a widespread effect on wrongful judgment cases across the country when the insurance company refuses to participate in settlement negotiations and refuses to pay their portion of the judgment immediately. Ryan Ferguson finally got justice. The jury heard us loud and clear.”

According to Zellner, Ferguson will get 86% of the sentence, while the six police officers will get a total of 14% or 2% each.

The six officers (Jeffery Nichols, William Westbrook, John Short, Loyd Simmons, Latisha Burns and Bryan Liebhart) worked on the initial Kent Heitholt murder case, but were added as plaintiffs against Travelers Insurance to deny the officers need coverage in cases about violation of civil rights. , according to Zellner. Because Travelers denied coverage for the incident, the officers would have gone bankrupt if forced to pay the settlement.

“The officers were put in a situation where Ryan couldn’t win and Ryan was put in a situation where he couldn’t collect his judgment without being able to sue travelers on behalf of the officers,” Zellner told ABC 17 News in a text message. “Ryan has now won ($)48 million $905,000 as a result of his wrongful conviction. This is the highest sentence in the United States for 10 years in prison.”

Ferguson spent a decade behind bars for the murder of Heitholt, then the Columbia Daily Tribune’s sports editor. State appeals court judges handed down his sentence in 2013, finding that prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense. The officers named in the lawsuit were also accused of tampering with evidence to obtain a conviction, but have denied any wrongdoing.

A federal court awarded Ferguson more than $11 million in a settlement after he sued Columbia City, police and prosecutors in 2017. Ferguson sued later that year to collect the money from Travelers Insurance. Point II of the subpoena alleges that Travelers Insurance “intentionally disregarded the officers’ financial interests in the hope of escaping the obligation to fund the officers’ defense and to escape the obligation to indemnify them for a significant financial liability covered by the LEL (Law Enforcement Liability Policy).”

St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, doing business as Travelers Insurance, covered the City of Columbia for law enforcement liability from 2006-11 for up to $2 million a year. The company was ordered to pay Ferguson $1 million for every year he served in prison under their policy. Another $354,000 was awarded for Ferguson’s legal fees. The city and its current insurer paid Ferguson $2.75 million.

Travelers filed an appeal in 2019, claiming the events described in the lawsuit occurred before the city’s insurance policy took effect. Missouri Court of Appeals Western District judges sided with Ferguson and awarded him $5.3 million, saying the policy covered Ferguson’s incarceration. Both sides went to a jury trial last month in Cole County to try Ferguson and the officers’ claims against Travelers.