Drunk Driver’s Victim Wins $9.1 Million

An Orange County Superior Court judge has awarded $9.1 million to an Irvine man paralyzed when he was knocked off his bicycle by a drunk driver. The accident victim, however, is unlikely to collect much of the money.

The woman who hit David E. Ward in December, 1987, is unemployed and without tangible assets, according to Ward’s lawyer. As a result, there is no practical way to collect even a portion of the $9 million in general damages awarded by the judge if she files for bankruptcy.

However, the $100,000 in punitive damages could be collected from the woman’s future earnings, said Ward’s attorney, David J. Fuller.

Lesley Karyn Rush was convicted of drunk driving in the case and sentenced to three years in prison. She was paroled after serving about half her sentence, according to court records, and lives in Las Vegas.

Rush did not contest the ruling by Superior Court Judge Francisco J. Firmat, which was issued Wednesday.

Ward, now a 32-year-old student at Cal State Fullerton, was paralyzed from the shoulders down when he was hit by Rush’s new Nissan pickup truck at the intersection of Westminster Avenue and Seal Beach Boulevard in Seal Beach.

“The judge made a good statement in putting such a high value on what happened to me,” Ward said. “But it doesn’t have a whole lot of meaning to me, unless I realized something financially out of it, which I’m not expecting to do--at least in the near future.”

After hitting Ward, Rush recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.31, according to court documents. A level of 0.08 or more is considered legally intoxicated.

Rush had two previous drunk driving arrests in Torrance and Newhall in which her blood-alcohol level was recorded at 0.23 and 0.27, according to court records.

Reached by telephone Thursday, Rush declined to discuss the judgment.