In 2006, People’s Law Office attorney John Stainthorp won a $9,000,000 jury verdict for Gary, Indiana resident Larry Mayes. Mayes was falsely convicted of a 1980 rape and robbery, but was exonerated in 2001 by DNA testing. People’s Law Office, working with the New York firm of Cochran, Neufeld and Scheck, then filed a law suit against Hammond and several police officers, alleging that they had hidden evidence in the case - including the fact that they had hypnotized the victim who was unable to make a positive identification until after the hypnosis. Hammond refused to admit that they were wrong, but a jury in federal court had no doubt that Mayes was innocent and that Hammond police officers had violated his constitutional rights, awarding Mayes nine million dollars for his years of false imprisonment.