A federal jury awarded a Chula Vista widow $6 million in damages Feb. 14 and another $50,000 Tuesday in the wrongful death lawsuit in which her husband had been falsely accused of killing a girl in 1984 when he worked in the police crime lab.
The damages went to Rebecca Brown, the widow of Kevin Brown, 62, who committed suicide in 2014 after San Diego Police seized his computers and 14 boxes of his belongings from their Chula Vista home during the investigation into the 1984 slaying of Claire Hough, 14, who was strangled on the Torrey Pines State Beach.
The punitive damages Tuesday specifically went against retired police detective Michael Lambert. The $6 million that was awarded Feb. 14 is against the city of San Diego and Lambert.
The U.S. District Court jury ordered $1 in damages against detective Maura Mekenas-Parga.
Rebecca Brown, at a press conference afterward with her attorneys Eugene Iredale and Grace Jun, said the verdicts “give me some peace.”
“Unless I could make people understand what happened, I knew Kevin’s soul couldn’t rest. Now it can,” said Brown, with tears in her eyes.
“I’m very relieved. Kevin is finally vindicated,” said Brown. “I could not have asked for a better jury and judge.”
She recounted how the police department issued a press release several days after her husband died and it said the 1984 murder was solved, naming Kevin Brown and Ronald Tatro, as the killers. Tatro drowned in 2011, and his DNA was found in numerous locations on the girl’s body.
Police were able to prove that Tatro was the killer, as his pubic hair was also found on the girl. But he had died and couldn’t be prosecuted. So their attention turned to Kevin Brown, as a small amount of Brown’s DNA was found on the vaginal swab of the victim that was taken in 1984, but discovered in 2012.
It was a common practice for male criminalists to keep their dried semen as samples in the lab to test as a control method, but this information was apparently not passed on to Lambert and other detectives. Lambert testified he was initially told that contamination was not an issue.
“We have to keep fighting for our rights as Americans,” said Rebecca Brown. “If it could happen to us, it could happen to anyone.”
“They should have never come in, in the first place,” said Brown, regarding the seizure of the 14 boxes that included her mother’s yearbook, recipes, and thousands of family photographs.
“It was a verdict that did justice,” said Iredale, who praised the seven-member jury as having “a highly defined ethical sense.”
“I think we are incredibly gratified by the jury’s verdict,” said Jun. “It vindicated Kevin and Rebecca’s constitutional rights.”
U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw told the five man, two woman jury that they took more notes during the two-week trial than most jurors do and thanked them for their service.
Jurors afterwards said they read the 34-page affidavit that Lambert prepared for a judge which authorized the seizure of his computers and property.
“The way the police handled the affidavit and the (search) warrant was very disturbing,” said a juror afterward to reporters. “It wasn’t fair or balanced. It was one-sided.”
“The search was completely botched. Nobody was really in charge,” said a juror.
“They didn’t ask which was whose property,” said a juror.
One juror said Brown ended up going “over the edge” due to the seizure of so much property from the home.
The judge released a jury note on Tuesday in which jurors asked this question: “Please confirm the $6 million award is covered by the city of San Diego/San Diego Police Department.”
Sabraw wrote them back, saying “the verdict has been rendered. This issue is therefore not before you.”
Jurors also asked this question: “Please confirm that the punitive damages is to be paid personally by Mr. Lambert.” Sabraw wrote back: “Yes.”
The final question jurors asked said this: “Can we recommend community service rather than a monetary award?” Sabraw wrote back “No.”
Lambert and the city were defended by the City Attorney’s office, which issued a statement Tuesday that said it is exploring its options for appeal.
Deputy City Attorney Catherine Richardson had urged jurors to only award damages of $1. She said Lambert worked for San Diego Police for 28 years and he retired in 2018. She said Lambert had worked on hundreds of murder cases.
Richardson said Lambert had to conduct a murder investigation of Brown, but was not told about the contamination issue in the crime lab. She said Brown killed himself as a result “of his own actions.”
