On Route 5A in Westmore, crosses and flowers still mark the scene of the August 2004 accident that killed Norman Woolard and Philip Leno. Lake Willoughby is in the background at right.

Photo by Chris Braithwaite

Published July 12, 2006

BURLINGTON — Lawyers for the families of two teens killed in a Westmore car crash almost two years ago have filed claims for damages.  Technically, they are counterclaims to a federal lawsuit brought by the mother of the 14-year-old boy who was driving the car.

In an apparent effort to pre-empt lawsuits that might be filed against her and her son in state court, Julie Jensen, a former summer resident of Brownington, asked the U.S. District Court in Burlington to declare that they were not liable for the deaths of Norman Woolard, 16, and Philip Leno, 17.  In her complaint, Ms. Jensen said that both families “have made demands for substantial monetary compensation.”

The counterclaims were filed last month by two prominent local attorneys, state Representative Duncan Kilmartin of Newport for the family of Mr. Leno, and state Senator Vince Illuzzi of Derby for the family of Mr. Woolard.

Both attorneys deny that the dead youths shared any liability for the fatal accident.  And both claim that the driver, Charles Meyer, and his mother behaved in such a “shocking and offensive” way that they should pay punitive damages, along with the compensation normally awarded in such cases.

Because Ms. Jensen initiated the legal proceedings, the case seems headed for a topsy-turvy jury trial in which the families of the two dead youths are the “defendants” and the young driver and his mother are the “plaintiffs.”

But Mr. Kilmartin is asking for separate jury trials.  He argues that Ms. Jensen brought her joint action against the two families “for improper purposes, including the purpose of embarrassing and confounding the friendship…”

He adds that Ms. Jensen is attempting to require Mr. Leno’s family to file claims against Mr. Woolard’s family.

However, he says at the end of his complaint, his clients have no claims against the Woolard family.

The potential conflict between the families stems from Ms. Jensen’s surprising revelation, in her original complaint, that she had allowed Mr. Woolard to drive her car on the day of the fatal accident.  She added that, without her consent, Mr. Woolard allowed her 14-year-old son to take the wheel.

That doesn’t reduce Ms. Jensen’s liability, Mr. Kilmartin argues in a long and typically florid document.

She should have known, he says, that on the last day of his life, August 24, 2004, Mr. Woolard had had his junior operator’s license for only 13 days.  That put him under several legal restrictions, the attorney notes, including that he not drive with any passengers under the age of 25.

Both local attorneys put great emphasis on the nature of the fatal car which, Mr. Kilmartin claims, Ms. Jensen bought in April 2004 “for her son’s use, possession, control and operation.”

The 1994 Toyota Supra was an exotic machine whose supercharged engine produced a “startling” 320 horsepower, both attorneys note.  Mr. Kilmartin includes a published review that says the car is “more at home on a road racing course than on the local freeways.”

As a legal matter, Mr. Illuzzi notes in his counterclaim, “an automobile is not a dangerous article per se, but may become one if it is operated by a person who is unskilled in its use.”

An athletic high school junior in the summer of 2004, Mr. Illuzzi writes, Mr. Woolard passed up summer soccer to work for Forever Green Landscaping & Lawn Mowing, which included “the summer estate of Julie Jensen” among its clients.

He was working there on August 23, the attorney writes, when Charles Meyer “repeatedly approached Woolard” to brag about his “muscle car,” and invited him for a ride.  The attorney says Mr. Meyer got the keys to the Toyota from his mother, handed them to Woolard, and the two took a 20-minute ride.

That happened again the next day, the lawyer continues, at about 3:15 in the afternoon.

According to Mr. Kilmartin, Philip Leno and his father, Paul, were cooking dinner at their home in Orleans when the car drove up.  The driver was “a tall young man” who looked 18 to Paul Leno.

Philip promised to be home for dinner and climbed into the car.  The attorney continues:  “…the family was awaiting Philip’s return for dinner (when) two state police officers arrived with the news that their son had been killed in an automobile accident at Lake Willoughby.”

According to Mr. Kilmartin, Ms. Jensen was at the hospital after the accident when she told State Trooper Owen Ballinger that she gave permission to “a high school dropout” from Island Pond to drive the car.

“At no time did she mention Norman Woolard, who does not live in Island Pond and was not a ‘high school dropout.’”  His family lives in Westmore.

He continues:  “Jensen said that after the twin-turbo Toyota had left her house, she then left to go shopping.  While traveling west on VT 58 toward Orleans, she saw her twin-turbo Toyota traveling east.  Jensen said that when her car passed her, she saw that the operator was wearing a light colored baseball hat and had ‘longish brown hair.’  Jensen advised Ballinger ‘that her son, Meyer, does not wear baseball hats.’”

The attorney argues that Ms. Jensen had “a duty to follow the vehicle, determine who was driving it and prevent its operation by someone incompetent, unlicensed or unable to safely operate the twin-turbo Supra.”

Mr. Kilmartin describes Ms. Jensen in terms that, while effusively flattering, will hardly be welcome to his adversary.

“Counterdefendant Jensen was a person of superior intelligence, insight and foresight,” he writes.  “She was a highly experienced, superbly trained and licensed attorney, specializing in…philanthropy to the ‘disadvantaged youths’ of the Northeast Kingdom…”

But he adds, “these ‘superior characteristics’ make her conduct outrageous in the extreme.”

Indeed, he writes later, “The fact that a mother of ‘superior intelligence and ability’ who more than anyone ‘should have known better’ under the circumstances, took Elaine and Paul Leno’s son away from them, is atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community, and Julie Jensen’s conduct caused emotional distress so severe that no reasonable person should be expected to endure it.”

In a response filed Friday, Burlington attorneys Richard Wadhams Jr. and Marc Heath, representing Ms. Jensen, “admitted” the bare facts about her career and good works.  However, they added, the balance of Mr. Kilmartin’s description of their client “is argumentative, irrelevant and contrary to Vermont law, and therefore no answer is required.”

Among the reasons she sought relief in the federal court, Ms. Jensen’s original complaint said in February, was that she and her son were the victims of “ongoing negative public sentiment” and “public outrage” in the aftermath of the accident.

Whatever the legal outcome of the case, it has given two seasoned lawyer-politicians an opportunity to give full vent to that sentiment, in documents carefully couched in legal language.

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