A New Jersey jury awarded a $12.9 million verdict last week against a state trooper who failed to recognize that a woman motorist was having a stroke and arrested her for DUI, crucially delaying medical treatment that her attorneys argued caused severe brain damage and left her permanently disabled.
Cheryl Rhines of Jersey City, then 48, was dressed in business attire and driving to her job as a marketing executive on the morning of Oct. 17, 2017, when she suffered a stroke on the New Jersey Turnpike, her lawsuit says.
Her car hit the right guardrail of the highway and was still running when rookie state trooper Jennifer Albuja approached at least 30 minutes later, at 9:14 a.m.
Due to the stroke, Rhines was unable to respond to commands using the right side of her body to put the vehicle in park or turn it off, so the trooper did so, the complaint says. She was also unable to speak and respond to commands from Albuja, such as retrieving her license from her bag…