photo by: Karen Dillon

Floyd Bledsoe, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years for rape and murder, and attorney Russell Ainsworth, right, discuss a civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday, May 10, 2016, that accuses Jefferson County prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies and three former KBI agents of conspiring to frame Bledsoe.

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday by Floyd Bledsoe, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years for rape and murder, accuses the Jefferson County prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies and three former KBI agents of conspiring to frame him.

The lawsuit filed in Kansas City, Kan., federal district court accuses law enforcement officials, including former Jefferson County Attorney Jim Vanderbilt and former Sheriff Roy Dunnaway, of fabricating testimony and evidence.

It names current Sheriff Jeffrey Herrig, who was undersheriff at the time, as well as a number of other sheriff’s deputies and unknown sheriff’s deputies and KBI agents.

“Today is the day we start a journey to find the truth, to find out why things went the way they did,” Bledsoe said Tuesday at a news conference at the Midwest Innocence Project offices on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.

“It wasn’t a decision that was easy to make,” said Bledsoe who was with three of his attorneys. “But ultimately accountability has to happen. People cannot just randomly pick and choose what they want and who they want to blame. And for that very reason we are here today.”

Bledsoe, 39, was released from prison after his brother, Tom Bledsoe, committed suicide in Bonner Springs in November of last year and left a note confessing for the second time to killing Zetta “Camille” Arfmann, 14, who was the sister of Floyd’s then wife.

On Tuesday he was with attorneys Russell Ainsworth, Ruth Brown and Theresa Kleinhaus of Loevy & Loevy, a national law firm, whom he recently hired.

Ainsworth said the firm specializes in wrongful conviction cases across the country and has won several multimillion dollar judgments. In Chicago alone the firm has amassed more than $100 million in settlements involving police misconduct and brutality, according to Crain’s, a Chicago business publication.

On Nov. 5, 1999, Arfmann went missing, and Floyd and his wife called police and friends to try to find her. But by the end of the weekend, Floyd’s brother had confessed first to his pastor, then to his parents, then to his pastor again, to sheriff’s deputies and finally to Vanderbilt, the county attorney.

Ainsworth said Tom provided details only the killer would know. But within a short period, Tom’s story had changed and Floyd was charged with the crime.

Ainsworth said several questions have not been answered, including: “Why was an innocent man sent to prison for over 15 years for a crime he did not commit? Why did the police and the prosecutor go to such lengths to prosecute the man they knew to be innocent, and free a killer?”

Ainsworth said documents were missing. There are no sheriff’s reports to document Tom’s confessions and how Tom came to change his story to say his brother killed Arfmann.

“Sixteen years later, we have not been provided any police reports documenting Tom’s initial statements and confessions to the police, which is extremely suspicious,” Ainsworth said. “When you have a case where someone is confessing to murder, Homicide 101 tells you to write down the confessions. Had Floyd had the initial confession documented and provided to him, he would have know that Tom was providing facts that could only have been known by the true killer.”

Ainsworth pointed to Tom’s suicide note: “I sent a innocent man to prison,” Tom, 41, wrote. “The Jefferson County police and county attorney Jim Vanderbilt made me do it. I was told by Vanderbilt to keep my mouth shut. Now I am going to set things right.”

Vanderbilt was eventually disbarred over problems in other criminal cases, as well as over personal problems, including failing to pay $60,000 in back child support. He could not be reached for comment.

Dunnaway has retired and lives in the Perry Lake area. He too could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but told the Journal-World last year that he did not do anything wrong.

The lawsuit also names Michael Hayes, the criminal defense attorney who represented Tom, as part of the conspiracy. Hayes “acted in concert with” others and “reached a meeting of the minds,” the lawsuit said.