$16 million jury verdict for victim of wrongful conviction

On August 29, 2008, NPAP member and lead counsel Mike Kanovitz of the Chicago firm Loevy & Loevy, along with attorneys Brian McAlister, Cindy Short, and Chris Lawson of Kansas City won a $16 million jury verdict for their client Ted White in federal district court in Kansas City.  The verdict included $14M in compensatory damages and $2M in punitives.  Mr. White spent approximately 5 years in prison after his ex-wife accused him of molesting his step-daughter.  After his conviction was reversed (it turned out that the lead detective was having a secret affair with Mr. White’s ex-wife), Mr. White brought a civil suit against his ex-wife and the detective from the Lee Summit, Mo. police department alleging violations of his constitutional rights.  The Eighth Circuit previously rejected a qualified immunity appeal in a published opinion (see link to opinion below).

There was evidence that the prosecutors knew about the relationship between the mother and the detective but failed to disclose it, a move which arguably let the detective off the hook for the Brady violation.  The judge gave an instruction which allowed the jury to hold the defendants liable if they caused the prosecutor not to disclose exculpatory information in the prosecutor’s possession.  The lawyers argued to the jury that the defendants’ subsidiary lies, which were not independent Brady violations, either misled the prosecutors into concluding that the relationship was not exculpatory or gave the prosecutor the cover she needed not to disclose the relationship.  This was one of several theories submitted to the jury, along with other, independent, Brady violations. Also, the attorneys were able to obtain a pretrial settlement against one of the two defendants for policy limits of $600k that she had under a homeowner’s policy.  Kanovitz and his co-counsel were able to keep her as defendant on the conspiracy claim by taking an assignment of a bad faith failure to settle claim against a second insurer that took the position there was no coverage.  The bad faith claim now may allow Mr. White to collect the one million in punitive damages from her insurer, which would otherwise not be collectable.

To read the jury verdicts click here

To read the opinion rejecting the qualified immunity appeal click here

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