Suit says district liable for athlete's brain injury

The trial is scheduled to be webcast live on Courtroom View Network, a pay website that caters to attorneys and law schools across the country. A spokesman for the network said it chose the Eveland trial because it will feature “top-tier litigators and extensive expert witness testimony, which along with significant outside interest makes it a great candidate for electronic coverage.”

See also: Dan Shinoff's motion for gag order in Scott Eveland case is denied

Suit says district liable for athlete's brain injury
J. Harry Jones
Jan. 3, 2012
U-T

SAN MARCOS — On the second play of the second quarter of a high-school football game more than four years ago, Mission Hills High linebacker Scott Eveland limped off the field and collapsed on the sideline.

The 17-year-old’s life would be saved in surgery many hours later, but it would be a life greatly altered.

Now, a Vista Superior Court jury will be asked to determine why Eveland suffered a catastrophic brain injury that night in September 2007.

More to the point, they will be asked to decide if employees of the San Marcos Unified School District bear the brunt of responsibility.

Barring a last-minute settlement, the trial is scheduled to begin Friday and could last eight to 14 weeks. According to court documents, Eveland’s lawyers will ask the jury for roughly $25 million, which is what they say is needed to provide the expensive, 24-hour-a-day care Eveland will need the rest of his life.

Eveland suffered a subdural hematoma — bleeding in the brain. His mind is active, but his is body crippled. He can type out responses to some questions on a keyboard but can barely speak. He’s made some progress physically, but his mobility is very limited.

“He’s going to be severely disabled for the rest of his life,” said his mother, Diane Luth. “But you know what? That kid is motivated. He’s working hard. … He’s doing what he can to get the connection back. He hasn’t given up.”

Eveland will be brought into court in a wheelchair during the trial but will not testify, his attorney said.

Football head injuries have become a hot legal and health topic nationwide in the past few years, with far more attention being paid to signs of concussion because of the long-term effects such incidents can cause.

The trial is scheduled to be webcast live on Courtroom View Network, a pay website that caters to attorneys and law schools across the country. A spokesman for the network said it chose the Eveland trial because it will feature “top-tier litigators and extensive expert witness testimony, which along with significant outside interest makes it a great candidate for electronic coverage.”

Eveland’s lawyers maintain that during the days before the game, Eveland was experiencing worsening headaches. Just minutes before the game, they will argue, Eveland went to the team’s athletic trainer and told him his headache was so bad, his eyes couldn’t focus. They will say that he asked to be held out of the game for at least the first quarter and that the trainer, Scott Gommel, then went to Coach Chris Hauser with the information.

According to one witness, who was a student trainer at the time, Hauser was overheard telling Gommel “You aren’t a (expletive) doctor,” and something to the effect of “These are my players, and I’ll decide who plays and who doesn’t.”

Eveland started the game. Two other young witnesses are expected to testify that in the days after Eveland collapsed, Gommel told them that he had gone to Hauser and told him of Eveland’s health complaints but that the coach put Eveland in the game anyway.