Judge orders Metro, other parties not to speak to media during lawsuit’s trial

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Metropolitan Police Department and other parties in Kirstin “Blaise” Lobato’s federal lawsuit not to speak to the media following previous reporting during the lawsuit’s trial.

Lobato is suing Metro and retired detectives Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, alleging they fabricated evidence to frame her for the 2001 killing of Duran Bailey, a homeless man found dead with his penis severed. Earlier this week, Metro released a letter from Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, in which they questioned why a state judge issued a certificate declaring Lobato innocent of the crime shortly before the trial began.

Metro’s public information office released the letter to the Review-Journal on Wednesday in response to a records request.

U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware said Friday that none of the parties in the suit can “comment publicly about this case or disclose any document” while the trial is ongoing. He did not issue a written gag order after both parties agreed to the restriction.

Attorney David Owens, one of the lawyers representing Lobato, asked for the order from the judge. He said the letter released by Metro could affect how jurors view the case, if they were to see media reports.

Owens also attacked the contents of the letter, which he said questioned his communications with officials.

“District Attorney Wolfson and I recommend an investigation into the representations made to the court and to your office by Lobato,” McMahill wrote in the letter, which was sent to the attorney general’s office and was written after District Judge Veronica Barisich signed the certificate of innocence on Oct. 30.

Boulware said he has seen no evidence to suggest the certificate of innocence was “not legally obtained.”

Letter from sheriff, DA

Lobato, who was 18 at the time she was accused of killing Bailey, was released from prison in early 2018, after the district attorney’s office dropped charges against her when she was granted a new trial. The certificate of innocence was granted in a state case Lobato filed under a Nevada law allowing people to seek monetary relief for wrongful convictions.

The attorney general’s office settled the case with Lobato for $900,000.

The letter from the sheriff and district attorney stated that Lobato’s attorneys had claimed the certificate would not affect the federal lawsuit, but then the certificate was mentioned in trial briefs.

However, court records obtained by the Review-Journal show that Lobato’s attorneys have previously argued in the state case that a certificate of innocence can be used as evidence in her federal claims.

The jury in the federal case has listened to five days of testimony this week, including testimony from Lobato and both detectives. The case is expected to extend several days into next week, as Lobato’s attorneys continue to call witnesses.

Metro’s attorneys have said they anticipate calling former Clark County prosecutor Sandy DiGiacomo as a witness, to testify about what evidence was presented during Lobato’s criminal proceedings. DiGiacomo, who was recently elected as a Henderson justice of the peace, helped prosecute both criminal cases against Lobato.

Detective testifies

LaRochelle spent most of Friday testifying about the process of investigating Bailey’s murder, questioning Lobato and authoring several reports. Lobato’s attorneys have accused LaRochelle and Thowsen of using misleading statements in their reports, manipulating Lobato during her interview, and destroying written notes taken during portions of witness interviews that were not recorded.

Detectives were trained to destroy notes after using them to write reports, LaRochelle testified. He also testified that he still stands by Lobato’s arrest report, in which he said she “snapped” and told police she “cut it off,” referring to the man’s penis. Neither statement was captured in the recorded portion of her interview.

“We were told by the prosecutors and district attorney that notes were not evidence,” LaRochelle testified.

Thowsen testified Wednesday that he believed Lobato was minimizing the attack when she spoke to police.

Lobato testified earlier in the week that she was using methamphetamine around May 2001, when she said she slashed at a man with a knife when he attempted to rape her in an east Las Vegas parking lot, over a month before Bailey was killed. Attorneys for the detectives told the jury that police interviewed several witnesses who said they had heard Lobato cut off a man’s penis in Las Vegas.

Lobato’s attorneys have also pointed to evidence that she was at her parents home in Panaca at the time Bailey was killed.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.