Supreme Court orders $250,000 payment in deadly Las Vegas police crash

CARSON CITY — The family of a Las Vegas man killed in 2007 when his vehicle collided with a police car that ran a red light will receive a $250,000 payment, but must return to District Court to determine if the attorneys fees it received were justified, the Supreme Court decided Thursday.

On a 3-0 vote, justices upheld the payment to five members of Raymond Yeghiazarian’s family. A District Court jury in 2011 awarded the family $2.2 million, but District Judge Jerry Wiese reduced that judgment to $50,000 for each family member.

As the justices noted in their decision, the state law at the time of Yeghiazarian’s death “provided for damages in tort actions filed against state entities ‘may not exceed the sum of $50,000.’”

The family last year filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police Department for more than $7 million in damages. There is no cap in federal civil rights cases.

Yeghiazarian, 47, was stopped on Sahara Avenue and Fort Apache Road waiting to make a left turn on a green light about 11 p.m. on July 4, 2007. He turned into the path of officer Jared Wicks, who was traveling without lights and siren between 58 and 74 mph in the 45 mph zone. The officer did not slow down before the collision.

Wicks, who said he was pursuing a white van, suffered minor injuries.

Yeghiazarian remained hospitalized in a coma until his death July 26, 2007.

Despite the judgment reduction, Las Vegas police had appealed to the Supreme Court. In a decision written by Justice Mark Gibbons, the court rejected most of the Police Department’s arguments.

Police had objected in part because the District Court refused to allow testimony about how Yeghiazarian’s blood-alcohol content tested at 0.49 percent, less than the 0.8 level considered to be drunk in Nevada law.

“Certainly if Raymond was intoxicated at the time of the accident, that information would have been relevant,” Gibbons said in the decision.

But his blood-alcohol level “does not establish his level of intoxication or impairment at the time of the accident,” the decision states.

The Police Department also challenged testimony by a Yeghiazarian family witness that Wicks was traveling at 74 mph.

Gibbons wrote that it was undisputed that Wicks was speeding without his warning light or a siren, but various witnesses disagreed on “how far over the speed limit he was going.”

But “all of the experts agreed, however, that if Officer Wick had been driving the posted speed limit, Raymond would have made it through the intersection with time to spare.”

The justices did agree with the Las Vegas police objection over some of the $88,104 in attorney fees awarded the family. They said the District Court should review the fees and determine whether “the office staff’s hourly rates were reasonable under the circumstances.”

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.