Jennifer Martin's 17-year-old son was sexually abused by a former state employee who is now sitting in jail, but Martin has learned there is almost no legal path to make the state of Nebraska pay for what happened to him. Her son now struggles with anxiety and a quicker temper, she says, the kind of lingering damage that doesn't come with an easy remedy when the abuser worked for the government.
A Legal Dead End Built Into State Law
According to the Omaha World-Herald, lawyers say successfully suing the state of Nebraska under state law for abuse committed by public employees is nearly impossible. State law allows lawsuits over property damage, injuries, and death caused by a public employee's negligent or wrongful act, but it carries a specific exception for claims arising out of assault or battery — and that exception has proven to be an almost total shield for the state.
Martin has not won a lawsuit against the state over her son's abuse. In 2021, the Nebraska Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of inmate John Pieper's negligence claim over a prison assault, finding the state immune because the underlying harm arose from assault or battery rather than ordinary negligence, the newspaper's report notes.
Courts Keep Applying the Same Narrow Test
That 2021 ruling, known as Pieper v. State, was a Nebraska Court of Appeals decision that applied an existing but-for interpretation of the intentional tort exception to the state's waiver of immunity: tort claims that would not exist but for an assault or battery fall within the exception, according to the Nebraska Court of Appeals. The decision applied that interpretation to Pieper's negligence claim arising from an assault.
The assault-or-battery exception has been applied to negligence claims. In a separate case, state prison authorities double-bunked an inmate in restrictive housing with a roommate who had a parole hearing canceled, allegedly ignoring red flags in the killer's own objection; the Nebraska Supreme Court found the state immune under the assault-or-battery exception. Judge Lindsey Miller-Lerman, per the World-Herald's reporting, called out the court for interpreting the same statutory language differently in that case than it had elsewhere.
A similar outcome played out in Joshua M. v. State, decided in May 2024, when three siblings suffered severe physical and sexual abuse in a state foster placement. The Nebraska Supreme Court found the Department of Health and Human Services immune from liability under the State Tort Claims Act, according to Justia, even as the court awarded $2.9 million against the foster parent directly. That same April, the court applied similar reasoning in Barber v. State, ruling that correctional staff providing unauthorized medical treatment to an inmate constituted a battery — again shielding the state from a negligence suit under the same statutory exception.
Lawmakers Tried, and the Governor Said No
Nebraska lawmakers have tried to change the relevant statutes. In 2024, Legislative Bill 25, sponsored by Sen. Justin Wayne to allow victims to sue public entities over child sexual assault, passed the Legislature on a 28-17 vote before Governor Jim Pillen vetoed it, arguing that allowing such suits against political subdivisions like public schools would dramatically increase taxpayer costs and erode sovereign immunity, according to Nebraska Public Media. Some lawmakers and state leaders resisted changes to the liability laws, often citing potential costs to taxpayers.
Reform efforts have been discussed ahead of the 2027 session. A federal civil-rights lawsuit has also been pursued in connection with the abuse.
Scale of Abuse at Kearney Facility Renews Scrutiny
The stakes of this legal gap have been thrown into sharper relief by what's been uncovered at the state-run Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center in Kearney, where youth are placed in state custody by juvenile courts. A 2026 report by the Office of Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare detailed 44 sexual abuse allegations involving 19 staff members made by 37 juvenile boys at the facility over a single year, Nebraska Public Media reported. By June 2026, local authorities had arrested four former state employees connected to the Kearney center following criminal investigations into sexual misconduct and abuse involving juvenile residents, according to The Independent.
Those criminal cases can proceed against individual employees even while civil suits against the state itself remain blocked by sovereign immunity. A June 2026 oversight report further found that Nebraska has increasingly placed foster children into restrictive institutional facilities rather than family foster homes, according to KETV NewsWatch 7, a trend that oversight advocates warn heightens the risk of both peer and staff misconduct in group settings.
For families like Martin's, the combination leaves little room for accountability beyond criminal prosecution of the individuals involved. Attorney Maren Chaloupka said the outcome in the Moser case means victims may never get an apology, a sentiment that underscores what lawyers describe as a state government with few incentives to quickly address bad behavior and insufficient accountability measures to prevent it from recurring. Reporting on the legal landscape was also published by Flatwater Free Press.
