After her mother was killed four year ago when a speeding, off-duty Baton Rouge Police officer crashed into their car, a 11-year-old Louisiana girl was awarded a $1.6 million car accident settlement earlier this week. Jonqualya Benton was sitting in the back seat of her mother Melissa Benton’s Nissan Sentra in February 2003 when a speeding police cruiser driven by off-duty officer Paul Rhea broadsided the vehicle. Seven-year old Jonqualya was left with personal injuries which included a fractured vertebra while an accompanying friend of the deceased Melissa, Jimmy Thomas, suffered a broken leg and separated shoulder in the crash, according to a story on the Louisiana television station WBRZ website.

After seven hours of deliberation, a Louisiana jury found Rhea 20% liable for the accident, and a Scenic Chevron and its insurance company 80% liable because of posted signs which obstructed Melissa Benton’s view of oncoming traffic and consequently violated a city-parish ordinance. Specifically, the jury found that signs on the Chevron property prohibited Melissa Benton from seeing the speeding Rhea, who was traveling between 70 and 88 mph in a 45 mph zone, as she tried to get across the Scenic Highway.

The insurance company’s attorney, Dave Kimmel, had argued that Rhea was 100% liable for the accident and expressed his disappointment with the decision. The Louisiana personal injury attorney of Jonqualya Benton said that he thought the jury came to its verdict finding the Scenic Chevron more liable because Rhea had a “momentary lapse” in judgment.

The jury verdict form lists this Louisiana car accident settlement as $2 million. However, since Jonqualya Benton settled with the city-parish and Rhea for $325,00 before the start of the trial, she is entitled to 80% of the jury verdict. Jimmy Thomas and his son were also awarded $800,000 by the jury. Rhea is still on the police force.