CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Yana Henriks delivering her opening statement
Los Angeles, CA - A California state court jury heard opening statements Thursday in a long-running lawsuit filed by a pedestrian struck by an oncoming car as she crossed a street at night outside of a crosswalk, and the full trial is being webcast and recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Camecia Lee alleges she sustained a concussion and knee injuries serious enough to require a total knee replacement after defendant Yolanda Coleman struck her with her car in 2018. She accused Coleman of speeding and driving recklessly, however Coleman’s attorney insisted to the Los Angeles County jury she has zero liability for the collision.
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Lee’s attorney Yana Henriks of McMurray Henriks LLP told jurors during her opening statement that pedestrians have a “right to be seen” even if they’re not using a marked crosswalk, and that drivers still have to take care to avoid hitting someone not acting as a “perfect pedestrian.”
Henriks described how Lee and a companion, Erik King, walked to get late night fast food near King's home at approximately midnight, and on the way back decided to cross at an intersection without a marked crosswalk due King's prosthetic leg and the nearest crosswalk being supposedly two blocks away.
She accused Coleman of driving at 70 miles-per-hour in a residential area, and she insisted Lee’s decision not to use a crosswalk did not absolve Coleman of her obligation to act as a responsible driver.
“Even if a pedestrian is outside a crosswalk a driver must still use due care, drive at a safe speed and avoid hitting people in the roadway,” she stated.
Henriks detailed how Lee suffered a concussion in the collision, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury, and also sustained serious injuries to her left knee that required multiple operations - ultimately requiring a total knee replacement.
She rejected allegations Lee ran into the road, noting she was accompanying an individual with a prosthesis and limited mobility, along with arguing Lee technically didn’t engage in “jaywalking” because that required both adjacent intersections to be controlled by traffic signals.
Henriks, who did not discuss monetary damages in her opening, left some room for jurors to assign Lee partial liability for the accident, but she stressed any apportionment should leave Coleman with the majority of responsibility.
Representing Coleman, attorney Christopher Patton of Patton Trial Group told jurors that while he mostly agreed with Henriks’ characterizations of Lee’s injuries that his client had no responsibility for them whatsoever.
CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Chris Patton delivering his opening statement
Patton insisted Lee and her companion recklessly darted across an intersection without a crosswalk in the middle of the night, that his client was not speeding, and that no driver had the reaction time to avoid hitting a pedestrian wearing dark clothing at night in section of the street not designed for pedestrians.
He argued Coleman first saw Lee’s companion and managed to successfully avoid him but still hit Lee after swerving to the left.
“All of that happened in a split second,” Patton said, snapping his fingers for emphasis.
Patton specifically took issue with the accident reconstruction footage Henriks showed during her opening statement, telling jurors it inaccurately suggested Lee and her companion were wearing bright, easily visible clothing at the time in a well-lit area. Patton told jurors the circumstances were in fact the complete opposite, with both individuals wearing dark clothing at a nearly pitch-black intersection.
He emphasized that police on the scene did not hit Coleman with any citations, and that most drivers wouldn’t have had the reaction time to avoid striking Lee’s companion as she did.
“An average person would have hit Mr. King,” Patton insisted.
The trial is taking place before Judge J. Stephen Czuleger, and CVN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Camercia Lee v. Yolanda Yvette Coleman, case number 19STCV03327 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
