Kirstin Blaise Lobato spent 16 years in prison before having her conviction vacated in 2017; now she is suing the LVMPD.
LAS VEGAS – On Monday, December 2, a federal jury will begin to hear evidence in a lawsuit filed by Kirstin Blaise Lobato, 42, who is suing the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) and the two detectives she says framed her for a crime it was impossible for her to have committed.
Lobato was only 18 when she was arrested for allegedly murdering and mutilating a homeless man named Duran Bailey, whose body was found near a dumpster behind a Las Vegas bank in July 2001. According to her lawsuit, Lobato had absolutely nothing to do with Bailey’s death, but was wrongfully targeted by LVMPD due to having defended herself against an unrelated sexual assault two months earlier. The lawsuit contends that, among other misconduct, the defendant detectives mischaracterized and misrepresented Ms. Lobato’s statements about this unrelated sexual assault and wrote false reports claiming that Ms. Lobato had confessed to Bailey’s murder, despite knowing that she had not. The detectives’ misconduct resulted in Ms. Lobato’s wrongful conviction.
In December 2017, a Nevada court vacated Ms. Lobato’s conviction, following the presentation of scientific evidence about Bailey’s time of death that supported Ms. Lobato’s defense that she was several hours away in Panaca, Nevada at the time. All charges against Ms. Lobato were dropped. She was released in early January 2018, after having spent almost 16 years in prison. Earlier this month, a Nevada court issued Ms. Lobato a Certificate of Innocence, officially declaring her actually innocent of all charges.
Now, Ms. Lobato is suing the LVMPD and the two investigating officers, Thomas Thomsen and James Larochelle, asking a federal jury to find that the defendants violated her constitutional rights, causing her wrongful conviction and imprisonment, and to award her appropriate damages.
The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, will get underway on Monday, December 2, beginning at 8:30 a.m., before the Honorable Richard F. Boulware in the U.S. District Court of the District of Nevada.
What: Opening statements in Lobato v. Las Vegas Metro Police, et al
When: Monday, December 2, beginning at 8:30 A.M.
Where: Courtroom 7C, Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse, 333 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV
Who: Ms. Lobato is represented by attorneys Elizabeth Wang, David B. Owens, and Megan Pierce of the civil rights law firm Loevy + Loevy.
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Contact: Michael McDunnah, Director of Communications, Loevy & Loevy, 312.371.5871, mcdunnah@loevy.com
Read the complaint in this case here.
