An Essex County jury has handed down a $11.5 million verdict against a New Jersey State Police trooper who mistook a motorist’s stroke for inebriation and arrested her, delaying medical treatment so long she’s now permanently disabled.
Cheryl Rhines of Jersey City was on her way to work in October 2017 when she began feeling ill and pulled to the shoulder of a highway in Newark, according to the lawsuit her mother later filed.
The responding state trooper, Jennifer Albuja, misinterpreted Rhines’ failure to respond to commands, communicate coherently, or stand upright as intoxication — even though Albuja found no smell or sign of substance use and Rhines had facial drooping and other signs of a stroke, was dressed in business attire at 8 a.m. on a weekday, and had no prior offenses, her lawsuit says.
Albuja failed to get Rhines treatment at a hospital 5 minutes away and instead searched her car and hauled her, handcuffed, to the state police’s Somerville station, delaying treatment by two and half hours, according to the complaint.
A sergeant at the station finally called EMTs, but troopers still left Rhines shackled on the floor even after they determined she was in medical distress, her attorney, Dennis M. Donnelly, told the New Jersey Monitor.
“I don’t think the jury liked that much,” he said.
Donnelly attributed the botched police response to state troopers’ “us-versus-them militaristic mentality,” saying they approach their job as warriors instead of guardians.
“They see everybody in the public as a danger,” Donnelly said. “They treated this woman like she was a criminal when she was helpless.”
Rhines spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and another month in a rehabilitation center, her lawsuit says.
Now 56, she had to leave her job as an event planner and move in with her mother in Nashville because she’s unable to speak or understand what people say to her — a language disorder called global aphasia that’s caused by stroke-related brain damage, Donnelly said.
“Her work life and her abilities to live as a normal human being are over,” he said.
The case went through remediation, but the state’s attorneys refused to resolve the case for more than $1 million — and Rhines’ care expenses had exceeded that, Donnelly said.
Jurors decided the case Jan. 29 after a nearly month-long trial — and made a much higher initial finding of $19.1 million to cover Rhines’ future medical care, emotional distress, pain and suffering, and loss of income.
But they blamed 60% of Rhines’ disabilities on the delayed treatment and 40% on the stroke itself, which the trooper didn’t cause. So they reduced their initial award by 40%, following Superior Court Judge Thomas Vena’s guidance.
State police spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Allison Inserro, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General’s Office, declined to comment on the case or whether the agency had tweaked policies or training in response.
Donnelly said Albuja, who had been a trooper for only two years when she arrested Rhines, was counseled by her supervisors about the incident — but only after he sued the state on Rhines’ behalf in 2019.
A $11.5 million payout is unusually high for lawsuits filed against the state. In 2023, when the state paid out $121 million to settle 364 claims, only 23 resulted in payouts of over $1 million, according to a recent New Jersey Monitor analysis.