Jury Decides Former Pro Football Player Was Behind the Wheel in 1980 Car Crash

An Orange County jury decided Wednesday that former pro football player Albert Carmichael was the driver of a car that rolled over on the San Diego Freeway in Irvine in 1980, injuring himself and a passenger.

Jurors awarded Carol Fleming, who testified that she could not remember who was behind the wheel, $152,000 for injuries sustained in the mishap.

The testimony from Fleming and Carmichael was crucial because there were no other witnesses to the single-vehicle crash on Nov. 9, 1980, near the Jamboree Road entrance to the southbound freeway.

Carmichael, who played for USC, the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos in the 1950s and early 1960s, sued Fleming. She then sued him for slander and emotional distress for saying that she was the driver of the car. Carmichael’s suit against Fleming was settled out of court shortly before her claim against him went to trial.

“I wanted to be vindicated,” said Fleming, 39, now of Rochester, N.Y. Fleming’s attorney, Sandra J. Montag, said she does not expect an appeal.

‘Human Element’

“Everything pointed to the fact I was not driving,” Carmichael maintained after the verdict. “The police that were there at the scene determined that. The experts--our experts--determined that. But a lot of times the facts, even though they point in that direction, the human element enters in.”

Richard P. Booth, Carmichael’s attorney, called the verdict “yet another instance of a case where sympathy has overshadowed the overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that she was driver.”

In the accident, Fleming was thrown from the car and suffered a broken pelvis, arm and ribs. Carmichael, who received cuts and severe bruises, was pulled out of the car by police.

One juror said he voted in favor of Fleming because he found her claim that she could not remember the accident so “crazy” that she had to be telling the truth. The juror said he thought it was more likely that the driver would not have been thrown from the car because the steering wheel would have served to block any exit.

Another, jury foreman Greg Meves, said jurors had “a gut feeling” that Carmichael was not telling the truth.

At one point in his testimony, Carmichael referred to Fleming as “the passenger.”

Settlement Disclosed

Meves said testimony in the case led jurors to conclude that Carmichael may have thought that Fleming was dead “and that would be reason to think you could get away with saying you weren’t the driver.”

Shortly before the trial began before Orange County Superior Court Judge Jerrold S. Oliver, Montag and Booth confirmed that Fleming’s insurance company paid Carmichael $17,500 to settle his claim against her. That settlement was not part of the evidence introduced in the trial.

Meves said he was surprised to learn of the settlement. Another juror, who asked not to be identified, called it “incredible.”

Carmichael, 57, of Palm Desert, said his auto insurance policy at the time of the accident had a limit of $100,000 in liability coverage. Carmichael had worked with Fleming in a real estate office in what Booth described as “a business relationship that became a dating relationship.”

Montag and Booth presented experts in accident reconstruction who came to opposite conclusions about who was driving.

Carmichael, obviously disappointed, said he will consider an appeal.

Fleming was elated.

“I wanted vindication more than I wanted the money, because I was not driving that car,” she said.

Reminded that she had testified that she could not remember who was driving, Fleming said, “I tried to tell the jurors the best way I could because I don’t remember the accident.”