PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. — Douglas County’s top crime scene investigator got fired from his job. He lost his house and his vehicle. On Tuesday, a Cass County District judge ruled that David Kofoed also should lose his freedom.
Judge Randall Rehmeier sentenced Kofoed to 20 months to four years in prison for tampering with evidence in the April 2006 shotgun slayings of rural Murdock, Neb., residents Wayne and Sharmon Stock.
Kofoed, 53, could be eligible for parole after 10 months.
Rehmeier said Kofoed’s crime was particularly egregious because his actions tarnished the reputation of Nebraska’s criminal justice system.
Kofoed’s defense attorney, Steve Lefler, had asked the judge to sentence his client to probation.
“He has nothing left,” Lefler said in court Tuesday. “I think Mr. Kofoed has been beat up enough.”
Legal troubles cleaned out his bank account. He needed a ride to Tuesday’s sentencing because he no longer has a vehicle.
Lefler called Kofoed an exemplary, long-time Douglas County employee, a person you’d want as a neighbor.
Lefler touted his client’s personal attributes, explaining Kofoed’s role as caretaker for his 11-year-old daughter and his mother.
Last month, Rehmeier delayed the sentencing after Kofoed said he needed extra time to make arrangements for his daughter and mother. His daughter has been sent to live with her mother in another state.
“Mr. Kofoed is not a risk to re-offend,” Lefler said. “He is not a threat to society. Dave Kofoed will not ever get hired by another police department in the United States.”
In March, Rehmeier convicted Kofoed of planting blood evidence to bolster the prosecution of Matthew Livers and Nicholas Sampson, the two men originally charged in the slayings. Charges against Livers and Sampson were later dropped.
During Tuesday’s sentencing, the judge read letters submitted by the men. Both asked the judge to sentence Kofoed to prison.
Sampson wrote about the fear and hopelessness he felt — being held in solitary confinement, facing first-degree murder charges and the possibility of life in prison, even though he was innocent. “Mr. Kofoed showed no remorse for his actions,” Sampson wrote.
Livers wrote that a sentence without prison time would be “an injustice.”
“All I am asking for is some jail time,” Livers wrote.
“It’s clear they suffered serious harm from an emotional standpoint,” the judge said. “Public confidence in the criminal justice system is paramount. . . . The court believes that Mr. Kofoed does not appear particularly remorseful.”
The judge noted that Kofoed’s manufacturing of false blood evidence provided corroborating evidence for Cass County authorities to continue with their prosecution of Livers and Sampson back in 2006.
A speck of murder victim Wayne Stock’s blood was found on a piece of filter paper Kofoed said he used to swab a car authorities then believed Sampson and Livers used the night of the killings. The speck of blood was the only evidence among 420 items that linked the cousins to the slayings.
Livers and Sampson were arrested before law enforcement eventually linked the killings to two Wisconsin teens, who later pleaded guilty.
Although Sampson and Livers were innocent, the judge said, Kofoed believed they were guilty of this “brutal double murder.”
Kofoed told the judge he still holds the criminal justice system in high regard.
“I do respect you very much in this court,” Kofoed said before the sentencing.
If Kofoed files an appeal, he could be released on a $50,000 cash bond. However, Lefler said Kofoed probably wouldn’t be able to afford that.
Kofoed was taken into custody after the sentencing. A handful of relatives and Kofoed’s former boss, retired Sheriff’s Capt. Dean Olson attended the sentencing. Olson, a backer of Kofoed, also wrote a letter of support to the judge.
Lefler anticipates that Kofoed may serve his sentence at the Omaha Correctional Center.
After the sentencing, special prosecutor Clarence Mock said he sees justice in the idea Kofoed will spend more time behind bars than either Livers or Sampson. Sampson was wrongly jailed for nearly six months; Livers for eight months.
“The criminal justice system will not tolerate, nor shy away from, investigating allegations of misconduct,” Mock said. “I think the criminal justice system needs to be cleansed every once in a while from people who attack it from the inside, and the result will be severe and a conviction.”
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