Vernon’s Story

The next to last thing Vernon expected as he was out bicycling on a hot summer evening was to get plowed down from behind by a man on a motorcycle.  The last thing he expected was to get sued for being in the guy’s way.

On a hot, steamy July evening like many in Baltimore in July, Vernon Fonseca, a 15-year-old enjoying the summer after his freshman year at Lake Clifton High School, was out pedaling around his neighborhood on a bicycle.  He’d just turned left onto Kennedy Ave., heading for home, when a motorcycle roared up from behind and rammed him, knocking him to the asphalt with a cut leg.  The motorcycle and rider careened off into a parked car. 

Vernon was more scared than hurt, and his next move, though perhaps not in the accident-victim’s textbook, was well within the scope of a normal reaction for a frightened teenager.  He ran.  And he wasn’t the only one – neighbors who saw the accident unfold also took flight, because it looked to them like the motorcyclist – who, it turned out, was an off-duty policeman – had pulled a gun.  (He said later that it was just a cell phone.)

“I ran into my house and fell on the floor,” says Vernon.  “I was shocked, and I was scared.  Then my friends came in saying he was going to kill me, so I ran out the back door.”

Vernon flagged down a policeman and told him what happened.  They returned to the accident scene, where an ambulance had arrived.  Medics bandaged Vernon’s leg and took the motorcyclist, who had a cut on his face, away in the ambulance. 

Vernon figured that was the end of it, but about a year later the motorcyclist hit him with a $10,000 lawsuit seeking damages for neck and back injuries that the suit claimed resulted from the accident.  “I was upset and I was mad,” recalls Vernon, who, then 16 and living with his grandmother, had no job and couldn’t imagine how he could pay anyone $10,000.  “My grandmother was telling me I’d be paying for the rest of my life.” 

MVLS volunteer Kathy Bustraan took Vernon’s case.  At the court hearing, the judge considered testimony from the motorcyclist, two of Vernon’s neighbors, and Vernon himself, and decided that the accident wasn’t Vernon’s fault.  He dismissed the case, much to Vernon’s reflief. ”I thought I would lose because he was a police officer and they know how to handle things like this,” Vernon says.  “Ms. Bustraan was telling me to be calm, to just tell the judge what happened and to tell the truth.  I think she won the case for me.” 

Vernon wasn’t the only one who found the outcome satisfying.  “I enjoy this kind of work because it’s more direct, and the people I represent really appreciate it, ” says Ms. Bustraan, who makes a point of taking on at least one pro bono case each year.  “It makes me more connected to a person with a need.”