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Kansas officials won’t be charged in case of man wrongfully imprisoned for murder

By Associated Press - | Jan 19, 2016

OSKALOOSA — County officials say some law enforcement officials likely made mistakes in an investigation that led to a Kansas man being wrongfully convicted in the death of a 14-year-old girl but did nothing to warrant criminal charges.

Jefferson County Attorney Jason Belveal said any mistakes made by a former prosecutor, county sheriff and a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent during the investigation into the 1999 death of Zetta Camille Arfmann were not malicious, The Lawrence Journal-World reported.

Floyd Bledsoe served more than 15 years in prison for her death before the conviction was overturned and he was released from prison in December.

“It’s just kind of, unfortunately, one of those things,” Belveal said. “Mistakes just got compounded, but I think they were honest mistakes. I don’t think anybody did anything sinister.”

Bledsoe was released after new DNA evidence was found and Bledsoe’s brother, Tom, wrote notes admitting to killing Arfmann before he committed suicide.

Testimony during a court hearing in December indicated original DNA samples were being tested at a KBI lab when a stop order was signed by Jefferson County Attorney Jim Vanderbilt, Sheriff Roy Dunnaway and KBI Special Agent James Woods, who are now retired. There was no explanation with the stop order.

A KBI agent also testified that a review of the polygraph tests showed that Tom Bledsoe failed the question, “Did you shoot and kill Camille Arfmann?” In 1999, Floyd Bledsoe and his lawyer were told his brother passed the polygraph and Dunnaway told the media that Tom Bledsoe passed the lie detector test with “flying colors.”

Dunnaway told the newspaper that he couldn’t explain some of the testimony.

“There’s no way I would have stopped DNA testing,” he said. “I like the truth, and whatever the truth is, get it out there and get it going.”

Dunnaway, who retired in 2008, said he remembered being told by the KBI that Tom Bledsoe passed the polygraph and Floyd failed it. Attempts to reach Vanderbilt were unsuccessful, the newspaper said, and Woods, who signed the stop order on the DNA testing, refused to comment.

KBI agents and county deputies are re-examining the case, KBI senior special agent Mark K. Malick said in a statement. The agency’s report likely will not draw discuss how the original investigation was conducted, he said.

Belveal said he expects the report will say that things be handled differently in the future.

“I doubt very seriously if they will say there was something sinister going on, and therefore we should look at some type of prosecution, you know, something internal,” he said.