NEW HAVEN (LN) — U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala issued an omnibus ruling on April 23, 2026, granting in part and denying in part 22 motions in limine in Stefon Morant’s civil rights lawsuit against the City of New Haven and five former New Haven Police Department officers.
The ruling, which precedes jury selection scheduled for April 28, 2026, allows Morant to present evidence of post-conviction pardons and judicial notice of prior lawsuits against NHPD detectives, while barring the City from using collateral estoppel to block Morant’s claims or challenge a prior summary judgment ruling that an officer violated his Brady rights.
Morant, who was granted a full and unconditional pardon in 2021 after spending 21 years in prison for the 1990 Turner-Fields homicides, sued former Police Chief Nicholas Pastore, Vincent Raucci, Robert Lawlor, Vaughn Maher, and Michael Sweeney, alleging their misconduct and the City’s failure to correct it led to his wrongful conviction.
Nagala granted Morant’s motion to take judicial notice of various convictions, vacaturs, and pardons relating to prior lawsuits against NHPD detectives spanning from 1984 to 2008. The court ruled these are adjudicative facts that can be determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned, such as state court filings and certificates of pardon.
The court also granted Morant’s request for a jury instruction that Sweeney has been found to have violated Morant’s constitutional right to a fair trial by withholding exculpatory evidence. However, Nagala instructed that the jury must still independently determine whether Sweeney’s violation caused Morant’s wrongful conviction and whether Morant is entitled to damages.
The court denied the City’s motion to preclude evidence of Morant’s and co-defendant Scott Lewis’s post-conviction relief, ruling such evidence is relevant to Morant’s malicious prosecution and Brady claims, as well as to damages calculations. The court noted that a jury believing Morant was innocent may award higher damages for emotional distress.
Nagala rejected the City’s attempt to use collateral estoppel to preclude Morant from challenging the admissibility of his 1991 statement or to block testimony that Sweeney violated his constitutional rights. The court found that because Morant’s conviction was vacated, state court judgments carry no preclusive effect.
The judge also denied the City’s motion for Rule 60(b) reconsideration of the Brady violation finding against Sweeney, calling the request "procedurally improper" and noting the City failed to show "extraordinary circumstances" warranting relief.
On the issue of Raucci’s personal life, Nagala granted Raucci’s motion to preclude most testimony from his ex-wife, Donna Desai, regarding alleged domestic abuse, finding it had low probative value and posed a risk of unfair prejudice. However, she allowed Desai to testify about Sweeney’s response to her domestic violence reports, as this goes to the City’s failure to discipline officers.
Desai will also be permitted to testify about Raucci’s alleged drug use and access to large sums of money, which the court found relevant to his motive to frame Morant and his credibility.
The court granted Morant’s motion to exclude a homophobic slur from trial records and audio recordings, ruling its probative value was outweighed of unfair prejudice. The court adopted Morant’s proposal to bleep the slur in audio tapes, finding the redaction did not overly interrupt the flow of the interrogation.
Nagala deferred ruling on whether Morant can ask leading questions of former prosecutor and now-Judge David Gold, and on the admissibility of former testimony from unavailable witnesses, pending further argument at a second pretrial conference on April 27, 2026.
Morant’s trial is projected to last six weeks.