Law360 (August 3, 2026, 9:40 PM EDT) -- New Haven, Connecticut, has asked a federal judge to lower the $38 million award that a jury ordered for a felony murder exoneree after finding that local police engaged in a widespread pattern of concealing evidence, arguing the city was improperly associated with a former detective of "low character" who is now the subject of a criminal referral.

In a reply memo submitted as part of its efforts to win a new trial, the city said Stefon Morant's counsel put on a case for punitive damages against Vincent Raucci before pulling that claim, leaving only New Haven as a potential target for the jury's wrath. Although Morant sought noneconomic damages for "intangibles" like harm to his relationships and reputation, he still urged the jury "to channel its anger and send a message" through a compensatory damages award, the city said.

Raucci and the city should have gone to trial separately, the memo said. If claims against the city were tried on their own, the jury would not have heard evidence that Raucci attempted to intimidate his ex-wife before she testified, New Haven argued.

"More generally, being associated with Raucci during trial made it inevitable that the jury would transfer that to the verdict form," the memo said. "Plaintiff's counsel exploited the opportunity to link Raucci with the city, repeatedly intimating that the very fact that a person of such low character served on the NHPD suggests that it was the sort of department that would have a practice of suppressing exculpatory evidence."

The city also criticized Morant's trial counsel for telling the jurors that they "should be absolutely furious" and make those feelings known with their verdict.

According to Friday's reply seeking a new trial, the award amounts to around $1.8 million per year of incarceration, but comparable cases in the Second Circuit have established that a reasonable maximum is $1 million per year of incarceration. In a July 17 filing, Morant said the Second Circuit's 2017 decision in Restivo v. Hessemann shows there is no basis for a setoff of the state award. The jury did not attribute any fault to the state, and "a rule that 'allows nonsettling tortfeasors to bear less than the full cost of the harm they inflicted' is 'inconsistent with the deterrent goal of Section 1983,'" the plaintiff said.

The city has also asked the court to reduce the damages by the $5.8 million that the Connecticut Claims Commissioner awarded to Morant in January 2025.

Morant sued New Haven and several city employees, including Raucci, in 2022. He spent 21 years in prison for two shootings he did not commit; he was released in 2015 and the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles expunged his charges in July 2021, "forever acquitting" him, his complaint said.

According to the May 26 verdict form, the jury found Raucci maliciously prosecuted Morant for the October 1990 killings of Ricardo Turner and Lamont Fields. Raucci also fabricated evidence, failed to disclose evidence that pointed to Morant's innocence and coerced a statement from the plaintiff, the jury concluded.

The jury further agreed Raucci and officer Vaughn Maher entered a civil conspiracy to violate Morant's rights, and officer Robert Lawlor was negligent in his handling of the case against Morant and his co-defendant Scott Lewis. The damages award is joint and several, so Morant could collect it all from a single defendant or a combination of them.

Lewis served nearly 20 years behind bars and reached a $9.5 million settlement with New Haven in 2017 after succeeding in a federal habeas corpus case.

According to a July 17 filing from Morant, the plaintiff put forth credible allegations that Raucci was "a business associate of Frank Parise, a high-powered drug dealer who wanted Lewis to take over his business," but Lewis refused.

Raucci's alleged work to frame Lewis and Morant was "consistent with Mr. Parise's goal of making an example of Mr. Lewis," the complaint said.

On July 20, U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala referred Raucci to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut for potential criminal charges of witness tampering and perjury.

According to the judge's order, Raucci sent a Facebook message to his son saying: "TELL YOUR MOTHER IF SHE TALKS ABOUT NARCOTICS THE HOUSE WILL BE TAKEN AWAY ... GOOD LUCK …"

The judge also knocked Raucci's "remarkably fertile imagination," accusing him of making "a steady stream of increasingly contradictory, incredulous, and — by the end — offensively inconsistent statements" during his testimony.

New Haven moved for a new trial or for judgment in its favor on June 26, telling Judge Nagala that Morant failed to meet his burden of establishing that Raucci's conduct was part of a pattern so widespread in the city that it carried the force of law.

"The undisputed evidence established that the NHPD's written policies prohibited suppression of evidence, officers were trained regarding their obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence, officers understood those obligations, supervisors never communicated that suppression was acceptable, and no witness observed NHPD leadership, the Police Commission or Internal Affairs condone such conduct," its memo supporting reversal of the judgment said.

An attorney for Morant, Nick Brustin of Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger LLP, told Law360 on Monday that New Haven's "frivolous" motions are "just kicking the can down the road."

"All of these strategies they're using now will just increase the amount of money they will have to pay" due to interest and attorney fees, he said.

"This is as rock-solid a verdict as you could possibly have," he said.

Counsel for New Haven did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

New Haven is represented by Tadhg Dooley, Daniel Passeser and Armando Ghinaglia of Wiggin and Dana LLP.

Morant is represented by Nick Brustin, Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann, Emma Freudenberger, Amelia Green, Elsa Mota, Grace Paras and Katie Cion of Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger LLP and Kenneth Rosenthal of the Law Office of Kenneth Rosenthal.

Raucci is represented by James Newhall Tallberg and Kimberly A. Bosse of Karsten & Tallberg LLC and Gregory Cerritelli of the Law Office of Gregory Cerritelli LLC.

The case is Morant v. City of New Haven et al., case number 3:22-cv-00630, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

--Additional reporting by Brandon Lowrey and Aaron Keller. Editing by Janice Carter Brown.

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