A Sacramento Superior Court jury has awarded a Loomis man $4.5 million for injuries he suffered in November 2005 when his car was rear-ended by an off-duty sheriff's detective.
Timothy Friese, 48, got the award Wednesday following an eight-day trial. He is a construction estimator who formerly pulled down a six-figure annual income but will never be able to work again, according to his lawyer.
Friese has undergone one back surgery and is facing at least one more major operation.
"It's been an awful, long, long road," Friese said Thursday. "I still have extensive pain. I went back to work for a year, almost 14 months, and tried to gut it out, but the pain became too unbearable."
The jury awarded Friese $75,007 for past medical bills, $130,000 for past lost earnings, $325,000 for future medical bills, $1.9 million for future lost earnings, $1 million for pain and suffering and $1 million for future pain and suffering.
It also awarded his wife, who saw a psychiatrist as a result of her husband's injuries, $70,000.
Randy Rendig, a claims adjustor with the George Hills Co., which represents Sacramento County, said the county "is reviewing its post-trial options."
The collision that injured Friese occurred at 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 16, 2005, while he was driving to work. His car was hit from the rear by a county vehicle driven by sheriff's homicide Sgt. Drew Wyant, who also was on his way to work.
Wyant is a former Sacramento State star quarterback who ranks sixth on the school's all-time passing list with 3,800 yards.
According to Friese's lawyer, John Demas, Wyant reached down for a bottle of water and took his eyes off the road just before the collision.
"Everybody agrees the guy had a serious injury," Demas said of his client. "The jury thought he was honest and credible, a straight-up guy."
Sheriff John McGinness said his department does "have concern for the well-being of Mr. Friese."
"It's not that we lack regard for his condition," McGinness said. "Nevertheless, we have to take a look at things as stewards of the taxpayers resources and to make sure we ultimately do the right thing."
Demas said he offered to settle the case for $1.9 million before trial but that the county's lawyers said no.
Carol Wieckowski, the privately-retained attorney who represented the county at the trial, said it was a "county decision" to take the case to the jury and that "I agreed with it."
Wieckowski was paid $36,000 for her work prior to trial, according to county spokesman Zeke Holst. Holst said he did not know how much her firm, Evans, Wieckowski & Ward, billed the county for the trial.
Wieckowski declined to comment.
According to Demas, the crux of the county's defense was that Friese could have undergone another surgery, a lower-back fusion, "and everything will be hunky-dory and you can go back to work."
"The jury didn't buy it," Demas said.
Court papers filed by Wieckowski said a county-retained medical expert concluded there was a 70 percent chance the additional surgery would "relieve his pain sufficiently to enable him to return to work."
The expert, Dr. George Picetti, "testified that there are some possible low risks and complications" from the fusion, Wieckowski wrote. She listed the possible risks in her court papers: "infection, a dural tear, bleeding, paralysis, lack of fusion, blood clots, (and) breakdown of adjacent segments."
Friese said back pain from the wreck has prevented him from doing the things he loves most: getting out into the woods to hunt and fish.
He said he was able to go on a hunting trip recently with one of his sons, an Iraqi war veteran, but that he had to drive off a road into an alfalfa field to get off a shot.
"I'll never be able to do the kind of hunting I used to be able to do," Friese said. "It was a huge part of my life."
Call Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.
