Then this group used its power over courts and media to get away with it. That is the story of the Franklin Cover-Up. More details are below if you can stomach the outrageous crimes committed in an organized manner against our most vulnerable and precious youth.
In June 1986, in the face of a pattern of gross abuse of children by the Webbs, the state suspended their foster care license.
Prosecutor Patrick Tripp again came to the rescue, deciding not to file sexual abuse charges or any other charges against Jarrett or Barbara Webb.
Instead of investigating her reports about the Webbs' involvement in pornography and child prostitution, Tripp called Nelly Webb a liar-lie detector tests notwithstanding.
Tripp's attitude was recorded by Julie Walters, a youth care worker called on to interview Nelly and Kimberly Patterson Webb in March 1986, because they had described abuse of boys residing at Boys Town, the large orphanage west of Omaha, where Walters was employed.
In Walters' fifty-page report on the child abuse described to her by the girls, Tripp figures as an adversary of the children: When presented with Jane Tooley's investigation, Pat Tripp, the Washington County prosecutor, said he didn't believe Nelly and wanted her to take a polygraph test.
At his request, Nelly was given four polygraph tests administered by a state trooper at the State Patrol office on Center St. in Omaha. The state trooper, after Nelly's testing was completed, told Kathleen Sorenson he tried to "break Nelly down" but he was convinced she was telling the truth.
He also told Nelly that she "passed" and that he believed her. Although the polygraph tests showed Nelly was not deceptive, Atty. Pat Tripp maintained he still didn't believe what Nelly said. He said Nelly had fantasized those stories to the point that she believed they were true.
Tripp's line, that child victims in Nebraska just invent abuses, and that therefore their complaints need not be seriously investigated, would be heard from one law enforcement agency after another, throughout the Franklin case, down to the perjury conviction of victim-witness Alisha Owen.
For Pat Tripp, there was a personal element in this case. He was a "good friend," according to foster parents cited in a September 1989 report by legislative Franklin committee investigator Karen Ormiston, of two individuals named by Nelly and Kimberly Webb as involved with the Webbs – Fort Calhoun Superintendent of Schools Deward Finch and Fort Calhoun High School principal Kent Miller.
Between late 1985 and June 1986, thanks to Tripp, the Webbs escaped both a DSS investigation and possible criminal prosecution. Shortly after his refusal to file criminal charges in this case, Tripp quit as Washington County attorney.
Today he is a prominent lawyer in Omaha. .. Well-known as they were, Deward Finch and Kent Miller were small fry compared to another name that appeared in Walters' report, the same person for whom Nelly and Kimberly said Casey Randall was the "maid"-Larry King.
Walters wrote: While the Webbs were away, the kids snooped through the house. They found:
1. pornographic video tapes in a bag under the Webbs' bed (which the kids played on the VCR while Webbs were gone)-one tape specifically showing teenagers involved in sexual activity. Nelly and Kimberly knew from eavesdropping that Larry King supplied the Webbs with the video tapes;
2. pornographic magazines in the basement. Once when Sean was suspected of snooping around in the magazines he was not allowed to eat anything at the Webbs' house for one week;
3. box of a lot of "romantic" novels in Mrs. Webb's closet (i.e., mothers having sex with their sons);
4. stacks of 8" x 10" (approx.) “photo" envelopes marked “DO NOT BEND" in Mrs. Webb's closet...;
5. photos of naked white women in Webbs' bedroom dresser drawer. Walters' report also conveys the Webbs' pricey lifestyle and the involvement of more people, including Larry King, in their activities: Although at the 3/7/86 hearing, Mr. Webb stated that he earns $32,000/ year, the Webbs' home is furnished quite expensively ($2,000 paintings, crystal, silver, several VCRS, TVs, etc.).
Also, Mrs. Webb wears a four carat diamond ring, a full-length fur coat, all custom-made dresses, expensive accessories. When they throw a party it includes caterers and limousines....