In an action that a judge said was the first he’d seen in his career as a lawyer and on the bench, a jury was sent back into deliberations Friday after apparently becoming confused over how many votes they needed to reach a verdict in a Santa Clarita woman’s traffic crash negligence case against Mel Gibson’s former girlfriend.
The Los Angeles Superior Court panel buzzed twice in the courtroom of Judge Mark Borenstein, saying they had a verdict in plaintiff Meghan Watts’ negligence case against Oksana Grigorieva. They announced they were awarding a total of $13,370.
But when polled, the jurors were split 6-6 on the $5,300 they said they wanted to award Watts for past pain and suffering. They needed at least nine votes for a verdict.
The panel voted with a sufficient number to give Watts $728 in past lost wages and $7,445 for medical expenses. Borenstein said the jury could stay with those amounts, or change them when they returned to their deliberations.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen that happen as a lawyer or a judge,” Borenstein said.
He told jurors they could take lunch and resume their deliberations when they returned.
Watts testified that she took the day off from her secretarial job at an appraiser’s office in San Fernando on Jan. 16, 2015, to take flowers to the workplace of her mother, who was celebrating her birthday. She said she was driving east on the Ventura (134) Freeway, just east of the Hollywood (170) Freeway about 3 p.m., when she saw a freeway traffic advisory sign warning of an accident ahead. Watts said she slowed and eventually stopped, as did the driver of another car behind her.
However, Grigorieva, driving behind the car that was trailing Watts’ Passat, failed to stop and hit the car ahead of her, pushing it forward into her vehicle, Watts said.
Meghan Watts said when she got out of her Volkswagen Passat after the accident in Burbank, she encountered Grigorieva, who was accompanied by her daughter Lucia, who was then 5 years old. Gibson is Lucia’s father.
Watts said she suffered neck, back and knee pain.
Since Grigorieva, 48, has admitted liability, the jury only has to decide Watts’ damages.