| A Pocahontas County native will receive nearly $2 million in a settlement from the state's insurer, the Board of Risk, which is
supported by state taxpayers.
Jacob Beard was convicted and later cleared of killing two women in 1980, but not after he served six years in what would
have been two life terms.
The killing of Nancy Santomero, 19, and Vickie Durian, 26, was nationally known as the "Rainbow Murders."
Beard told reporters there was no amount of money could make up for what happened to him.
The suit was primarily against the West Virginia State Police and Pocahontas County authorities.
Beard was convicted in 1993 and sentenced to two concurrent life terms in prison for the 1980 shootings, and was found
innocent of the crimes in 2000.
Convicted serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin confessed to the crimes, drawing a map that showed the exact location of the
victims remains.
A lawsuit against the West Virginia State Police, Pocahontas police and prosecutors said Beard's civil rights were
violated.
Beard's attorney, Steven Farmer, said authorities went about coercing witnesses and ignoring physical evidence that didn't
support their case.
"It was an investigation that was purposefully designed to accuse and convict Mr. Beard. In order to do that, they had to
create evidence that wasn't true and didn't exist," said Farmer
"There are a whole lot of really good State Police officers and prosecutors, but there are some bad ones who do bad things,
said the attorney, who indicated the officers were obsessed in nailing Beard for the crime.
"There were members of the West Virginia State Police who felt the way we did, and they stood up and tried to stop what
was going on," he said, but it just didn't work.
The State of West Virginia has payed several million dollars for wrongful incarceration, lab problems, poor police work and police brutality.
Read more about the Rainbow Murders
www.courttv.com | 
