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Seymour hit with $6.2m verdict in fatal crash

December 14, 2005

Matthew Higbee, Connecticut Post

WATERBURY - The town of Seymour was hit with a staggering $6.2 million verdict Tuesday when a Superior Court jury found retired Detective Bailey Cook contributed to a 2001 drunken-driving accident that killed three young Valley men and seriously injured another.

In reaching its unanimous verdict, the six-member jury found Cook, who was off-duty at the time, was negligent in his duties as a police officer by failing to take away the keys from the intoxicated driver, who was drinking at the same bar as Cook before the crash.

Coming on the sixth day of deliberations after a three-week trial at Waterbury Superior Court, the jury awarded damages of more than $1 million each to the families of the deceased men, and $2 million to the lone survivor of the crash. The awards vindicated the feelings of the men's parents and, barring an appeal, brought closure to an emotional four-year legal odyssey. "Maybe the boys can rest now," Billie Kingston of Ansonia said after the verdict, her cheeks wet with tears. Kingston's 26-year-old son, Kenneth Carey, was driving his three friends from a Seymour bar on Oct. 7, 2001, when his Mitsubishi veered off of Route 8 and struck a tree. Carey; Matthew Blackwell, 22; and John Kevalis, 21, died instantly. Martin Kevalis, 22, survived, but lost his leg below the knee.

The jury awarded Blackwell's estate $1.4 million, John Kevalis' estate $1.3 million, Carey's estate $1.5 million, and Martin Kevalis $2 million.

The verdict also established case law to hold police officers responsible for their actions while off-duty, according to Douglas Mahoney, the lead plaintiff attorney.

"I think that the jury sent a message that a police officer has an obligation, within reason, to protect lives even when off duty," Mahoney said. "Simply picking up a phone to call for backup, when such an action would have saved four lives they have an obligation to do that."

Cook, 54, was drinking and watching football with the four men on his day off at Barone's Cafe in Seymour shortly before the accident. Then a 30-year veteran of the police force, Cook allowed the men to leave the bar with a drunk driver at the wheel, the plaintiffs argued.

The detective also gave the men his business card in case they were pulled over. Found on the men by state troopers who investigating the accident, the cards each contained a hand-written message by Cook urging a police officer to go easy on them.

Matthew Blackwell's father, David Blackwell, was at the cemetery picking out his son's gravesite when a trooper showed him one of the cards.

"Being an ex-police officer myself, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that a police officer could behave like this," Blackwell said Tuesday, adding that he was satisfied with the verdict. "It sends a message to other police officers that they will be held accountable," he said. After testifying on the first day of the trial, Cook never returned to the courtroom and was noticeably absent Tuesday as the jury reached its verdict.

Jury foreman Ana Chessic, of Naugatuck, said that on their first day of deliberations, jurors held an intense discussion of whether Cook should be held responsible. Ultimately, it was a cell phone record showing that Carey used Cook's phone eight minutes before the crash that weighed heavily in the piecing together of events, Chessic said.

"That established the time frame that put them in the same spot. It meant they left at about the same time," Chessic said. Beginning as separate lawsuits, the four cases were combined for the trial on the complex litigation docket. Both the Blackwells and the Kevalises had additionally sued Barone's and the Carey estate.

While the cases against Barone's and the Carey estate were settled out of court, the town failed to strike a deal with the plaintiffs during a July mediation hearing. Speaking privately, attorneys in the case said the town could have settled the lawsuits for far less than the jury verdict. "For the Blackwells, it never was about the money," Mahoney said. "They simply wanted the town to take some responsibility for Bailey Cook."

The lead defense attorney, Frank Szilagyi of the law firm of Silvester and Daly of Hartford, was hired by the town's insurance carrier, Kemper Insurance. Szilagyi declined to say whether an appeal would be filed.

"I have to talk to my client first," he said. If the town appeals the verdict and loses, it would have to pay additional interest of 10 percent annually from the date of judgment. In the Blackwell and Kevalis cases, the jury had to divide up responsibility among Cook, Barone's and Carey, and then multiply the total awards by Cook's percentage.

Their verdict in these three cases stated that Carey was 53 percent responsible, Cook 35 percent, and Barone's 12 percent. In Carey's case, the jury divided the responsibility between Cook and Carey evenly. The jury award totaled more than $15 million in the four cases, but Barone's and the Carey estate are no longer responsible for damages because of their settlements. After calculating Cook's percentage, the verdict against the town added up to $6,284,419.

The differing percentages between Carey's case and the other three initially threw a wrinkle in the proceedings. Szilagyi argued that if Carey was 53 percent responsible for the deaths of Blackwell and John Kevalis, and for Martin Kevalis' injury, then Carey's portion of responsibility should not change in his own case.

"They [the jury] were instructed to render a verdict that was consistent throughout. That has not happened," Szilagyi said. But Judge Dennis G. Everleigh let the decision stand, and the court clerk re-read the verdict.

In all four cases, the clerk repeated the question asked of the jurors: "Was Bailey Cook negligent in his duties as a police officer?" Each time the clerk read the answer, Tammy Blackwell, Matthew's mother, mouthed the word "yes" along with him.

Several minutes later, Blackwell said justice was served. "That's all I ever wanted," she said.

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