State to pay to settle lawsuit

State to pay to settle lawsuit
July 6, 2009
Last Update: 8:25 pm


TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas officials have agreed to pay $875,000 to settle a federal lawsuit against a former state social worker and her supervisors.
The State Finance Council approved the settlement Monday. The council is the governor and eight top legislative leaders. Brandon Blackmon sued six employees of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services in 2005 over the two years he spent in state custody as an accused juvenile offender from Wichita.
Blackmon was 10 years old when police took him into custody in May 1996 over an alleged sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl. Blackmon denied the allegation, and in 1998 the Kansas Supreme Court reversed a court finding that he had assaulted the girl.
Blackmon's lawsuit alleged his case was mishandled and he suffered abuse while in custody.