The Donnelly Law Firm

Cheryl Rhines pulled onto the shoulder of Route 78 in Newark in October 2017 while having a stroke. A New Jersey State Police trooper with about two years on the job read her slurred speech, facial drooping and inability to stand as intoxication, arrested her, and had her taken to a State Police station instead of a hospital five minutes away, delaying treatment by roughly two and a half hours. An Essex County jury found the state liable in January 2025 and put her total damages at $19.1 million, then attributed 40% of her disability to the stroke itself. After that reduction and an adjustment for disability benefits she had already received, the judgment came to $10,882,432.20, and the trial judge refused to disturb it in April 2025. Dennis M. Donnelly represented Rhines, who has global aphasia and can no longer work.

A maternal fetal medicine specialist read ultrasound films four days late, and the Tapias' daughter was delivered four days after she should have been, with permanent brain damage from oxygen deprivation. A Union County jury returned $20 million on October 24, 2018, and the Appellate Division affirmed the judgment in 2020.