Top court reverses former Las Vegas teacher’s kidnapping conviction

The Nevada Supreme Court this week threw out a kidnapping conviction against a former Clark County teacher behind bars for a sexual relationship with a student.

Defense attorneys for Jason Lofthouse, now 37, had argued that prosecutors overreached when they charged Lofthouse with kidnapping, because his 2015 relationship with a 17-year-old student was consensual.

In a unanimous 13-page decision from seven justices, the high court agreed.

“We conclude that the statutory language is not aimed broadly at any crime that merely involves a minor,” Justice Lidia Stiglich wrote. “Interpreting the language in (the kidnapping statute) to include any crime involving a minor would expand an already broad kidnapping statute beyond what is reasonable, leading to absurd results.”

Lofthouse, a former Rancho High School teacher, also was found guilty by a jury in early 2016 of 10 counts of sexual conduct with a student and sentenced to a maximum of 19 years in prison, the majority of that term tied to his kidnapping conviction.

Deputy Public Defender William Waters, who argued the case on appeal in late 2018, called the high court’s Thursday decision “phenomenal,” adding that Lofthouse had been willing to take responsibility for his relationship with the teen.

The Supreme Court wrote that the sexual conduct law, amended in 2017, is aimed at the status of the teacher and “makes no exception for consensual sexual conduct, even though the student otherwise has the legal capacity to consent.”

One of Lofthouse’s former attorneys, Robert Draskovich, said Thursday’s order “signals the Supreme Court curbing the prosecutorial overreach that’s been occurring with the kidnapping statute.”

Waters had argued Lofthouse, now housed at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, could not have committed kidnapping as a matter of law because the underlying crime was not against the teen herself, which the decision recognized. The decision this week means Lofthouse could soon be eligible for parole, Waters said.

In Nevada, the age of consent is 16, but state law makes an exception for school employees and volunteers and prohibits them from having sexual contact with pupils.

“Because the statute is indifferent regarding the student’s actual consent or the offender’s actual exploitation of the student, we conclude that it is the offender’s status that is the gravamen of the offense outlined” in the sexual conduct law, the high court decision stated. Because the charge “is predominantly concerned with the appearance of impropriety rather than actual impropriety, we conclude its focus is on decency and morals rather than harm to a particular individual.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Stacy Kollins had argued that Lofthouse elevated the risk of harm when he took the girl to a hotel to have sex with her.

The girl initially denied having any relationship with the history teacher but later acknowledged to her parents and police that she and the teacher had been involved in a sexual relationship.

She and Lofthouse exchanged more than 4,000 text messages during their relationship, which the girl testified was initiated by both her and her teacher. Lofthouse was convicted of kidnapping for taking the girl to the Aliante hotel during school hours on two occasions in May 2015.

Kollins declined to comment on the decision.

The ruling could stretch into other cases, though the overall impact “rests in prosecutorial discretion,” Draskovich said.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.