LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Lawyers for two police detectives say a federal judge’s rulings entitle them to a new trial, according to court documents first obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators.
Arguing a judge’s evidentiary rulings violated their rights, retired Las Vegas Metro police detectives Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle asked the judge to allow a new trial in Kirstin Lobato’s civil lawsuit. A jury awarded $34 million in damages to Lobato after it found the detectives liable for framing her for murder.
Lobato sued for fabrication of evidence and intentional infliction of emotional distress related to her 16-year-long incarceration for the 2001 murder of a homeless man she was later cleared of killing. She was released from prison in 2018. In 2019, she filed the civil lawsuit in federal court, which began on Dec. 2 and lasted ten days.
At trial, Lobato’s lawyers argued that the detectives mischaracterized incriminating evidence and statements in their official reports and omitted exculpatory information from the same reports.
“At trial, the clear weight of the evidence showed that the Plaintiff was not charged or convicted on the basis of deliberately fabricated evidence and the detectives did not know or have deliberate indifference to the Plaintiff’s innocence,” Craig Anderson, the attorney for the detectives, wrote in his Feb. 3 motion. “Because the clear weight of the evidence is against the jury’s finding in this case, this Court should order a new trial.”
Anderson and the detectives both declined to be interviewed after the verdict.
But in the motion for a new trial, Anderson argued: “Defendants’ substantial rights were affected by numerous evidentiary missteps.” Anderson said the trial judge, Richard F. Boulware II, erred when he limited the state prosecutor’s testimony, damaging his clients’ chances of victory. The admission of expert testimony and evidence of false or coerced confessions, Anderson wrote, confused the issues and misled the jury.
On top of the $34 million in compensatory damages for the time Lobato spent in prison, the jury also awarded $10,000 against each detective for punitive damages.
Lobato’s attorneys did not respond immediately to messages Tuesday from the 8 News Now Investigators.
After trial, one attorney said the jury correctly found the detectives liable for framing Lobato.
“Of course they intentionally framed her, and that’s what the jury saw” Elizabeth Wang, an attorney at the Chicago law firm Loevy and Loevy, said. “And like we said during closing statements, verdict in Latin means ‘to speak the truth,’ and that’s what the jury here did today.”
Outside the courthouse after the verdict, Lobato said: “I have no idea what the rest of my life is going to look like. I know what the past has looked like and it was pretty bad.”
In addition to the motion for a new trial, the detectives filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law, arguing that the Boulware should overturn the jury’s verdict. Anderson, in the motion, argued, “The evidence presented at trial in this case permits only one reasonable conclusion, and that conclusion is contrary to the jury’s verdict.”
On the same day, Feb. 3, Lobato filed a motion asking the court to award her interest on her $34 million award from the jury.
