Trio wrongly imprisoned, handful of others, to get relief via claims law

Each year, a joint House-Senate Subcommittee on Claims decides which claims against the state it should fund.

This year’s law with those determinations calls for nearly $1.16 million in payments in fiscal year 2024, including a combined $866,679 to three people who sought relief under the Imprisonment and Exoneration Remedies Act which provides a compensation process for cases where a person was exonerated of a felony for which they were wrongfully incarcerated. It takes effect July 1, 2023.

The awards are:

• $810,431.86 to Terrell Buechner who was convicted of an unrelated crime and wrongly required to register as a predatory offender, but, nonetheless, pled guilty three times for failing to register. Improperly on the registration list for more than 14 years, Buechner spent more than eight years in prison;

• $240,000 to Joe Vento who spent 529 days in prison, but the statute he was charged under was later found to be unconstitutional; and

• $56,008.26 to Ronald Fairbanks who, due to “substantial cognitive and memory deficiencies” did not knowingly violate the state’s failure to register statute.

Sponsored by Rep. Luke Frederick (DFL-Mankato) and Sen. Jim Carlson (DFL-Eagan), the law also contains payments related to personal injury claims against the Department of Corrections:

• $43,200 for a minimum ascertainable partial permanent disability award to James Vandevender for permanent brain injuries from an assault sustained while performing assigned duties at the Rush City facility;

• $3,940 to Nicholas Edwards for a partial amputation of his right index finger that was crushed by a grommet machine while performing assigned duties at the Moose Lake facility;

• $2,968 to reimburse the department for claims under $7,000 and other claims already paid by the department for injuries under the community service or sentence-to-service programs; and

• $520.08 to Jeron Falkner for permanent injuries to his left thumb while performing assigned duties at the Stillwater prison.

HF3288*/SF3308/CH56

HF3288* / SF3308 / CH56