Jury orders Hyundai to pay $240 million in damages
Megan Strickland
Among the witnesses was Skip Palenik, a microscopist who has worked on a number of cases that gained national attention including the JonBenet Ramsey murder, the Hillside strangler murders, the Unabomber case, and a re-investigation into the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination.
Megan Strickland
The family and legal counsel of two teenagers killed in a 2011 Arlee wreck view what is left of a Hyundai Tiburon. The crashed car was parked next to an undamaged version of the same vehicle as a visual aid for the jury.
Megan Strickland
The family and legal counsel of two teenagers killed in a 2011 Arlee wreck view what is left of a Hyundai Tiburon. The crashed car was parked next to an undamaged version of the same vehicle as a visual aid for the jury.
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POLSON — After two weeks of testimony and two days of jury deliberations, the jury ordered Hyundai Motor Company and Hyundai Motor America to pay more than $240 million in damages to families of the two teens killed in a 2011 Arlee wreck. The jury found that a defective steering knuckle caused the crash, and that Hyundai knew about the defect well in advance and acted with malice.
The courtroom battle grew heated in the last week of the trial, as each side brought out a parade of highly paid experts to prove its point. In question is whether or not a defective steering knuckle caused a 2005 Hyundai Tiburon driven by 19-year-old Trevor Olson of Missoula to swerve into oncoming traffic on July 2, 2011. The northbound Tiburon crashed into a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Stephanie Nicole Parker-Shepard of Arlee.
Trevor Olson, his 14-year-old passenger Tanner Olson and Parker-Shepard were killed.
Parker’s husband, Vincent Shepard, was severely injured in the crash. The couple’s two small children were also hurt.
The families of Trevor Olson and Tanner Olson sued Hyundai, saying that a defective steering knuckle on Trevor’s car was one of many manufactured by the company since the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Called to testify in support of the Olson families’ claims was University of Montana Professor of Metallurgy William Gleason, who gave a long list of vehicles that were allegedly manufactured with steering knuckle defects. One of the vehicles had been driven 12 miles before the defect was discovered.
Hyundai’s defense centered on whether or not a firecracker could have exploded in the Olson car and caused the car to swerve.
Among the witnesses was Skip Palenik, a microscopist who has worked on a number of cases that gained national attention including the JonBenet Ramsey murder, the Hillside strangler murders, the Unabomber case, and a re-investigation into the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination.
Palenik used a high-powered microscope to examine tiny bits of debris found inside the Tiburon.
“I have evidence a firecracker went off in that vehicle,” Palenik said.
Microscopic examination of red paper found in the vehicle were identified as the same as the “Mighty Cracker” fireworks found in the Olson vehicle, Palenik said.
The microscopist was able to magnify the alleged firecracker paper so much that he was able to determine the bits were blown – not torn – apart.
Palenik guessed that the firecracker went off somewhere between the passenger and driver’s seats. When asked about when he believed the fireworks went off, Palenik said sometime after Trevor and Tanner Olson purchased fireworks at a stand in Evaro that evening. A receipt found in the vehicle showed fireworks were purchased 20 minutes before the crash.
Palenik was puzzled by how the firecracker may have ignited. There was no ignition source found in the vehicle, and he testified that firecrackers don’t explode spontaneously. Palenik thought he finally discovered the answer in a last-minute review of photographs taken at the crash scene.
Lying in the midst of debris, Palenik spotted a fuzzy square orange object just feet away from one of the crash victim’s hands. The debris is shown being swept off the roadway by emergency personnel in dash cam video recorded by law enforcement.
Palenik believed it was a lighter, but the jury didn’t get the chance to hear that theory from the scientist. Judge Deborah Kim Christopher prohibited Palenik from speculating about the lighter in front of the jury because it was not something that would require an expert opinion.
Palenik almost squeaked by and presented the theory to the jury, but was interrupted by attorneys representing the Olson families.
“Hyundai clearly tried to drop a bombshell that would have caused a mistrial,” attorney Mark Williams argued.
Williams’s fellow attorney John Bohyer was angered by Hyundai’s attempt to have Palenik speak to the possible ignition source.
“If you can see smoke coming out of my ears, it is,” Bohyer said.
It was the first of several times Hyundai’s defense was chastised for toeing the line of what is acceptable in court.
On Thursday, Judge Christopher told Hyundai’s lawyers they had lost substantial credibility by replacing the original steering knuckle off a Tiburon of the same make and model with brand new parts. The whole point of having an example car was that it was in the same condition an undamaged Olson vehicle would have been in, Christopher said.
Christopher made the defense disassemble that part of the display, but still allowed jurors to view the undamaged vehicle in a parking lot across the street from the courthouse. The car was parked next to the remains of the Tiburon driven by Trevor Olson the night of the crash. It is very unusual for jurors to get to see such a display in court, Christopher told the jury.
Christopher warned Hyundai to tread lightly in steering its expert testimony as to not cause a mistrial.
“I don’t want a mistrial,” Christopher said. “There’s been too much work done, too much pain suffered, too much money spent.”
Highly paid experts for the trial included Lynn Davis, fire investigator who offered an alternative to the theory that a firecracker exploded in the Olson vehicle. Davis surmised some sort of flash fire occurred on the outside of the vehicle that would account for Tanner Olson’s singed hair.
Hyundai’s defense in turn called a fire expert to testify that there was no way a flash fire could have occurred.
The jury was expected to begin deliberations on Monday as the Valley Journal went to press.
