The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Friday the former CEO of University Medical Center in Las Vegas cannot be tried a second time on charges of theft and misconduct due to a previous mistrial, which triggered double jeopardy protection, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The former executive, Lacy Thomas, was fired from UMC in 2007 after an audit revealed the hospital had lost $34 million for the year, nearly double the $18.8 million Mr. Thomas told supervisors the hospital would lose, according to the report.
In 2008, he was charged with five counts of theft and five counts of official misconduct. Prosecutors alleged contracts UMC awarded to five companies during Mr. Thomas' three-year tenure were unnecessary or duplicative, giving illegal benefits or gains to Mr. Thomas' friends.
The case ended in a mistrial in 2010 after prosecutors failed to share hundreds of pages of evidence with the defense.
On Friday, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Mr. Thomas cannot be retried on the theft and official misconduct charges.
"All evidence before the district court in this case suggests that the prosecutor intentionally and improperly withheld exculpatory documents," the court wrote in its decision. "This conduct was egregious, and caused prejudice to Thomas which could not be cured by means short of a mistrial. Therefore, double jeopardy bars reprosecution of Thomas on all counts."
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