Family of Paralyzed Irvine Boy Awarded $38.8 Million

A jury returned with a $38.8-million verdict Tuesday for the family of an Irvine boy paralyzed when his mother’s car was struck by a stolen Mercedes whose driver was fleeing police.

But an attorney for Trent McGee, 8, said that he and his family probably will never see any of the money because the car thief, John Eric Phelps, is in prison for the July 1994 crash.

The Orange County Superior Court jury found Phelps negligent and liable for all of the boy’s damages, including expensive medical care he will need for the rest of his life, said Gina Genova, one of the McGees’ lawyers. Trent is paralyzed from the neck down and must use a respirator.

About $2.2 million of the damages were awarded to his mother and older sister, who were in the car at the time of the crash but were not seriously injured, and to his father.

After about two days of deliberations, jurors cleared the Dana Point automotive shop where Phelps had stolen the Mercedes of financial responsibility for damages, although they found that the shop was negligent. The McGees, who contended that the shop had left the keys in the Mercedes, may appeal the verdict, Genova said.

“They were negligent, and without their negligence we wouldn’t be here,” attorney Joseph P. DiVincenzo told jurors during the trial.

An attorney for Dana Point Automotive contended during the trial that there was no evidence the keys were in the car when it was stolen.

The McGees already are appealing a judge’s decision earlier in the case dismissing the city of Laguna Beach and its Police Department, which had been involved in the chase, from the lawsuit, Genova said.

Phelps, a Dana Point resident with a history of traffic violations, had run a red light on July 11, 1994, when he broadsided the McGees’ Peugeot station wagon, according to police reports.

The Mercedes was going about 100 mph when it attracted the attention of an off-duty Laguna Beach motorcycle officer on the Santa Ana Freeway, according to police reports at the time.

The officer, who was in uniform and riding his police motorcycle to get its radio fixed, put on his red lights and siren but decided to stop the chase after the Mercedes pulled off on Jeffrey Road, police said at the time. The officer did not see the crash--at Jeffrey Road and Irvine Center Drive--but arrived in time to help chase Phelps, who ran into a residential area, the reports said.

Phelps, then 30, was arrested after a six-hour, door-to-door search near the crash scene and was charged with hit-and-run driving and other felony counts. He pleaded guilty that July and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Phelps did not hire a lawyer to represent him in the civil trial, Genova said.