Lawsuit Award Angers Mother of Brandon Teena

By David Hendee, World-Herald Staff Writer

FALLS CITY, Neb.

A judge's finding that Teena Brandon's life was worth less to her mother 

than what it cost to bury her demands an appeal, a Lincoln lawyer said Friday.

District Judge Orville Coady granted JoAnn Brandon of Lincoln $5,000 for the 

wrongful death of her 21-year-old cross-dressing daughter who was murdered 

near here in 1993.  

Teena Brandon's funeral expenses were $6,223.  "Five thousand dollars?  

Well, I think that's probably an invitation for another appeal on that particular 

point," said Herbert Friedman, who is JoAnn Brandon's attorney.  "Obviously, 

Mrs. Brandon is not happy with this whole thing.  She basically said, 'Appeal.'"

The award is part of a $98,223 package Coady levied this week  against Richardson 

County after the State Supreme Court said Coady erred on key points in deciding the 

case the first time.

In a scathing April ruling, the justices ordered Coady to award Teena Brandon's estate 

the funeral expenses and at least $80,000 for the county's negligence in protecting Brandon 

and for pain and suffering she experienced in the final moments of her life.

In addition, Friedman asked Coady during a June hearing to award $240,000 for emotional 

distress and $250,000 to JoAnn Brandon for the loss of her child. Coady complied with the 

high court's order, keeping the pre-death award at $80,000 and granting the funeral bill.  He 

awarded $7,000 for Teena Brandon's emotional distress during the final week of her life and 

set $5,000 as the value of her life to her mother.

Friedman said JoAnn Brandon was troubled that Coady placed a nominal value on her daughter's 

life.  Coady wrote of JoAnn Brandon's claim that he was not sure she  Ever claimed more than an 

intrinsic value because there was little evidence about loss of companionship.  He said Teena 

Brandon had no real relationship withher family at the time of her death.

The judge said Brandon's mother, upon learning Dec. 25, 1993, of her daughter's rape, did 

not return her to the safety of her home in Lincoln.

JoAnn Brandon sued Richardson County and the sheriff for failing to protect her daughter 

after she reported the rapes.  Teena Brandon, who posed as a man and used the alias Brandon 

Teena, and two others were killed Dec. 31, 1993, in a farmhouse near Humboldt.  The killers 

were John Lotter and Marvin Nissen, the two men she accused of raping her after they learned 

that she was a woman.  Lotter is on Nebraska's death row, and Nissen is serving a life sentence 

in prison.