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Sarasota, FL— Attorneys Monday debated the fallout from injuries a Florida teenager suffered in a 2022 crash, as a damages trial opened against the driver responsible and his employer. Gerlt v Odon, 2023-CA-001479.
Aubrey Gerlt was a 16-year-old high school cheerleader when her Toyota Corolla was hit by a vehicle driven by Luis Odon. The crash left Gerlt with multiple injuries, including a broken right leg that has required surgery and physical therapy.
Odon and his employer at the time, Castelli Construction, have admitted fault for the crash, leaving jurors to decide damages in the case. As trial opened Monday, Gerlt’s attorney, Morgan & Morgan’s Keith Mitnik, walked jurors through evidence he said would show the injury to Gerlt’s leg left her with persistent pain and its impact would last throughout her life.
Mitnik said Gerlt had been a physically active teenager before the crash, but that the injury to her leg forces her to choose whether to engage in an activity and suffer from increased pain or give up the activity entirely.
“She has lost her freedom to live life without making these choices all day, do or don’t do, knowing there’s a price to pay, either way,” Mitnik said.
But the defense contends Gerlt has significantly recovered from the crash and pushes back on claims surrounding Gerlt’s pain.
During his opening Monday, Wicker Smith’s Christoper Cazin previewed evidence, including photos of Gerlt in the months after the crash, that he said showed she has largely recovered from her injuries. And Cazin highlighted records showing Gerlt’s medical progress, including a report from November 2024 in which Gerlt indicated she could not remember having any recent significant pain.
‘When you’re asked at the end of the case to award her potentially an astronomical number for pain and suffering for the rest of her life… just don’t forget that, as of last month, she was having periods where she wasn’t having pain,” Cazin said.
The case is expected to go to the jury by mid-week.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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