Kansas paying Floyd Bledsoe additional $11.25m after wrongful conviction for murder

Floyd Bledsoe will receive an additional $11.25 million from Kansas after spending 16 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and top lawmakers approved a settlement agreement with Bledsoe on Wednesday in a federal lawsuit he brought against Kansas Bureau of Investigation employees and local law enforcement officials. The amount comes on top of roughly $1 million state officials originally agreed to pay him in 2019 as compensation for his wrongful imprisonment.

The State Finance Council approved the settlement without public discussion during a virtual meeting following a closed executive session. In July, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office told the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit that Bledsoe and the KBI defendants had “reached a tentative settlement agreement,” according to court records.

“With this settlement, Floyd appreciates that the state of Kansas understands the enormity of the harm that he has suffered,” said Russell Ainsworth, a Chicago-based attorney for Bledsoe with the firm Loevy & Loevy.

“The settlement will allow Floyd to heal and move forward with his life and find the peace he’s sought for almost 25 years.”

Only Rep. Troy Waymaster, a Bunker Hill Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, voted against approving the settlement. He declined to comment on his vote.

A resolution approved by the State Finance Council lists the settlement amount. The governor’s office provided a copy of the resolution to The Star.

The approval of the settlement comes after commissioners in Jefferson County, where Bledsoe was convicted, this spring voted to pay him $7.5 million. Ainsworth said the total value of the settlements in the federal lawsuit is $18.75 million, which he noted is one of the highest per-year settlements in the country.

Arrested at age 23, Bledsoe was convicted in 2000 of sexually abusing and murdering a 14-year-old girl named Camille Arfmann in Oskaloosa. That was despite the fact that Bledsoe’s brother, Tom Bledsoe, confessed shortly after the 1999 killing, turned himself in to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, led officers to Arfmann’s buried body and handed over the murder weapon.

Instead of pursuing Tom Bledsoe, investigators “framed” Floyd Bledsoe for the murder, according to the lawsuit he filed in 2016. They “orchestrated” a recantation by Bledsoe’s brother and hid evidence of Floyd Bledsoe’s innocence, his lawyers argued.

In 2015, DNA testing revealed Tom Bledsoe was in fact the likely source of sperm found in the victim. Tom Bledsoe then died by suicide, admitting yet again in his final written words that he killed Arfmann.

Police chase settlement

The State Finance Council also approved a $500,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit filed by the daughter of a woman who died in a March 6, 2021, chase conducted by the Kansas Highway Patrol.

According to the lawsuit, Trooper Justin Dobler was patrolling when he allegedly saw a car with a cracked windshield. It looked similar to a white Ford Crown Victoria that was on a list of stolen vehicles. He attempted to pull the vehicle over, but the driver did not stop and a chase began.

About 45 seconds into the pursuit, the lawsuit said Dobler identified the car as a Mercury Grand Marquis. Dobler provided dispatch information including the license plate number and was told a couple minutes later that the vehicle was not stolen. The vehicle allegedly was speeding up to 55 mph in a 35 mph zone. He twice attempted a “tactical vehicle intervention” to disable the car.

The third attempt was successful and the car spun out and struck a utility pole. Anita Benz, 45, died in the hospital after the chase. Her daughter, Kelly Ratzloff, filed the lawsuit in March 2023.

The Star’s Luke Nozicka and Katie Moore contributed reporting