XPost: vegas.general, talk.politics.guns, alt.law-enforcement.corruption
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/14/us/kirstin-lobato-las-vegas-verdict/index.
html

Las Vegas AP — A federal jury in Nevada has awarded more than $34
million to a woman who was arrested at age 18, wrongly convicted twice,
and served nearly 16 years in a Nevada state prison for a 2001 killing
she did not commit.

Kirstin Lobato, who is now 41 and uses the name Blaise, cried and hugged
her attorneys after a judge read the trial verdict Thursday in US
District Court, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

“It’s been an uphill battle with many, many obstacles,” she told
reporters. “And I’m happy that it’s all finally finished.”

Lobato said she didn’t know if becoming a millionaire would make up for
years in prison, adding that she had “no idea what the rest of my life
is going to look like.”

The civil trial jury found Las Vegas police and two detectives, now
retired, fabricated evidence during their investigation and
intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Lobato. The panel
determined that Lobato should receive $34 million in compensatory
damages from the department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each
former detective.

The detectives, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, and their attorney,
Craig Anderson, declined to comment outside court. Anderson told US
District Judge Richard Boulware he planned to file additional court
documents following the verdict. Anderson said Friday an appeal was
“likely.”

The department previously agreed to pay damages if the jury ruled in
Lobato’s favor.

Lobato was 18 when she was interviewed by police without an attorney,
arrested and charged with killing Duran Bailey in Las Vegas in July
2001. Bailey, who had been homeless, was found dead near a trash bin
with a slashed neck, cracked skull and missing genitals.

No physical evidence or witnesses connected Lobato to the killing, and
she maintained she never met Bailey. But police maintained she confessed
in jail that she had killed a man who tried to rape her during a
three-day methamphetamine binge.

Lobato was 19 when she was convicted of murder in 2002. The Nevada
Supreme Court threw out that verdict and Lobato’s prison sentence in
2004 because her lawyers weren’t able to cross-examine a prosecution
witness who testified that Lobato made the jailhouse confession.

Lobato was tried again in 2006, convicted of manslaughter, mutilation
and weapon charges, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison.

She was exonerated and freed from prison in late 2017 after the
Innocence Project and attorneys in Las Vegas again took her case to the
state Supreme Court. Justices said evidence showed that Lobato was in
her hometown of Panaca, Nevada, some 150 miles from Las Vegas when
Bailey was killed.

Last October, a state court judge in Las Vegas issued a certificate
declaring Lobato innocent of Bailey’s killing.

That action was challenged by Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson in a letter asking state
Attorney General Aaron Ford to investigate how and why attorneys for
Lobato acquired the certificate of innocence.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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