Woman Injured by Driver Fleeing Police to Get $20.75 Million : Courts: A jury orders damages against the MTA in crash attributed to transit police officers.

A jury Friday ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to pay $20.75 million to a woman left crippled and disfigured after she was run down by a hit-and-run driver being chased by transit police, attorneys said.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury also ordered the transportation agency to pay $1.25 million to the woman’s husband for loss of consortium.

Attorneys Browne Greene and Brian Panish said the accident occurred four years ago today as Lucy Pogosyian, then 44, was leaving Los Angeles City College, where she was attending classes in hopes of resuming the teaching career she had begun before immigrating to the United States.

The lawyers said that moments before, several blocks from the college, a car driven by Yousef Elgahror had struck a parked car and sped off. A Rapid Transit District patrol car (the RTD was the precursor of the MTA) saw the incident and began a pursuit. The chase along city streets reached speeds of up to 60 mph, the attorneys said.

“As she opened her car door to put her books inside, the car being chased by the police struck her,” Panish said.

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Pogosyian was rushed to a nearby hospital, where one of her her legs was amputated. Since then, Panish said, she has undergone a series of surgeries and faces the prospect of many more.

“She is wheelchair-bound, and in constant need of assistance to accomplish everyday chores,” Greene said.

The lawyer said testimony indicated that the transit agency’s police department was “out of control,” as exemplified by the “shoddy practices” that led to the crash.

The jury apparently agreed, awarding Pogosyian $3.25 million for medical expenses and future medical care and $17.5 million for pain, suffering and disfigurement.