by Dana DiFilippo, New Jersey Monitor
A judge has rejected the state’s bid for a new trial after an Essex County jury handed down an $11.5 million verdict against a New Jersey State Police trooper who mistook a motorist’s stroke for inebriation and arrested her, delaying medical treatment so long she’s now permanently disabled.
In an order issued Friday, Superior Court Judge Thomas Vena also dismissed the state’s claim that jurors got it wrong and refused to set aside or modify their January verdict. He denied, too, the state’s request to reduce the judgment, which attorneys had argued was excessive.
“It does not clearly and convincingly appear to the Court that there was a miscarriage of justice under the law,” Vena wrote. “The Court is satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to support the verdict that the jury reached and that no reasonable mind could disagree with the outcome.”
Cheryl Rhines of Jersey City was driving to work in October 2017 when she began feeling ill and pulled over to the shoulder of a highway in Newark, according to the lawsuit her mother later filed.
The responding state trooper, Jennifer Albuja, misinterpreted Rhines’ failure to respond to commands, communicate coherently, or stand upright as intoxication — even though Albuja found no smell or sign of substance use and Rhines had facial drooping and other signs of a stroke, was dressed in business attire at 8 a.m. on a weekday, and had no prior offenses, her lawsuit says.
Albuja failed to get Rhines treatment at a hospital 5 minutes away and instead searched her car and hauled her, handcuffed, to the state police’s Somerville station, delaying treatment by two and half hours, according to the complaint. A sergeant at the station finally called EMTs, but troopers still left Rhines shackled on the floor even after they determined she was in medical distress. Albuja had been a trooper for only two years when she arrested Rhines.
Rhines, now 56, had to leave her job as an event planner and move in with her mother in Nashville because she’s unable to speak or understand what people say to her — a language disorder called global aphasia that’s caused by stroke-related brain damage, her attorney, Dennis M. Donnelly, told the New Jersey Monitor in February.
Vena rejected all of the state’s arguments for reconsideration, including that jurors wrongly assessed damages for both emotional damages and pain and suffering, that the care Rhines’ mother gave her is not compensable, and that evidence of Rhines’ shackling was irrelevant and prejudicial.
“The Court permitted such testimony regarding the Plaintiff being shackled to provide the jury an accurate representation of the events that transpired before she was finally able to receive medical attention and that led to the basis of her complaint. Thus, a new trial is not warranted on this ground,” Vena wrote.
Before trial, the case went through mediation, but the state’s attorneys refused to resolve the case for more than $1 million — and Rhines’ care expenses had exceeded that, Donnelly said in February.
Jurors initially returned a $19.1 million verdict after a nearly month-long trial to cover Rhines’ future medical care, emotional distress, pain and suffering, and loss of income. But they blamed 60% of Rhines’ disabilities on the delayed treatment and 40% on the stroke itself, which the trooper didn’t cause. So they reduced their initial award by 40%.
Vena reminded the state several times in his ruling of that reduction, writing: “This ended up being advantageous for the Defendants.”
Donnelly could not be reached for comment Monday. Attorney William J. Hamilton, who represents the state and Albuja, declined to comment.
The judgment, which now stands at $11.2 million after some tweaking to reflect Rhines’ medical expenses and insurance benefits, is unusually high for lawsuits filed against the state. In 2023, when the state paid out $121 million to settle 364 claims, only 23 resulted in payouts of over $1 million, according to a recent New Jersey Monitor analysis.