Kirstin Lobato: Las Vegas: (Part One): Major (Welcome) Development: (Bulletin): A jury has awarded 34M to this woman who sued Las Vegas police for framing her," 8 News Now (Reporter Kyle J. Payne) reports…"The jury found in favor of Lobato on all counts and she cried tears of joy as the decision was read. The $34 million awarded are compensatory damages for the 16 years she spent in prison. They also awarded $10,000 against each detective, Thomas Thowsen and James Larochelle, both now retired, for punitive damages."

BACKGROUND: Innocence Project: "On December 29, 2017, upon a motion by the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, Clark County District Court’s Honorable Chief Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez dismissed all charges against Kirstin Blaise Lobato and ordered her to be released from prison. On December 19, 2017, Clark County District Court Judge Stefany Miley had reversed Lobato’s murder conviction. After a five-day hearing in October, the court had found that Lobato’s defense lawyers violated her constitutional right to effective legal representation by failing to call pathology and entomology experts regarding the victim’s time of death, which would have supported her strong alibi. Lobato has served nearly sixteen years in prison despite compelling evidence of her innocence. Lobato was just 18 years old when she was charged with the brutal 2001 murder of Duran Bailey, a homeless man in Las Vegas. Lobato, who was tried twice for the crime, has always maintained her innocence. Bailey’s body had been found at around 10 p.m. on July 8, 2001 next to a dumpster in the parking lot of a bank building. He had been brutalized: his eyes were swollen shut; his skull cracked; several of his teeth had been knocked out of his mouth; his carotid artery was cut; and his penis had been removed."

https://innocenceproject.org/cases/kirstin-blaise-lobato/

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MORE BACKGROUND: 8 News Now: Link Below:   Two retired Metro police detectives used ‘evidence that they made up’ in order to pin a murder on a woman who, ultimately, was exonerated and declared innocent by the Clark County District Court, attorneys told a federal jury in Downtown Las Vegas Monday.

In opening statements of a federal trial alleging fabrication of evidence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, lawyers for Kirstin Blaise Lobato, 42, claim those two retired police detectives – Thomas Thowsen and James Larochelle – “stole 23 years of her life” when they “generated the idea” that Lobato brutally murdered a homeless man in 2001.

attorneys-say-las-vegas-detectives-used-made-up-evidence-to-pin-murder-on-woman-it-wasnt-an-accident

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STORY: "Jury awards 34M to woman who sued Vegas police for framing her,"  8 News Now investigator  Kyle J. Payne) reports, on December 12, 2024.

 HIST: "A federal grand jury has awarded over $34 million to a woman who sued the police department and two of its detectives for framing her. 

Kirstin 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 a civil lawsuit in federal court, which began on Dec. 2.

The jury began deliberating Wednesday morning and notified the federal judge, Richard F. Boulware II that it had finished its deliberations shortly after 1:00 p.m. Thursday. 

The jury found in favor of Lobato on all counts and she cried tears of joy as the decision was read. 

The $34 million awarded are compensatory damages for the 16 years she spent in prison.

They also awarded $10,000 against each detective, Thomas Thowsen and James Larochelle, both now retired, for punitive damages."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.8newsnow.com/investigators/jury-awards-34m-to-woman-who-sued-las-vegas-police-for-framing-her/