On Monday, attorneys will weed through the local jury pool to find six jurors and one alternate to decide whether Orchid resident Elizabeth Jewkes-Danielsen owes the family of John’s Island residents Christopher and Frances Ingraham damages for a fatal May 2022 crash on A1A in Indian River Shores.
Paul Danielsen, Elizabeth’s husband, is also being sued for negligence by family members representing Frances Ingraham, and Christopher Ingraham, who died from his injuries at 89 years old days after the crash. Danielsen and Jewkes-Danielsen are being represented by separate attorneys who will put on their own defense cases as the husband and wife are separate respondents in the lawsuit.
Danielsen and Jewkes-Danielsen are accused of recklessly racing northward on A1A from the Polo Grill through Indian River Shores, resulting in the crash with the Ingrahams, who were also driving northbound from dinner at the Riomar Beach Club.
Paul Danielsen arrived home to his Orchid condo safely, hearing about the crash after Jewkes-Danielsen was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, and Danielsen’s attorney calls the racing accusation “patently false.”
Judge Cynthia Cox ruled last week that Paul Danielsen, a federal appeals attorney from California, will not face civil or criminal sanctions for failing to disclose at deposition the fact that the couple stopped at Citrus Grillhouse on Ocean Drive for appetizers, wine and a martini before having dinner and drinks with friends at the Polo Grill the evening of the crash.
Attorney Dane Ullian of the Gould Cooksey law firm, representing the Ingraham family, had asked Cox to declare a default in the case due to what he argued was a major misstep, even though a copy of the credit card receipt from Citrus Grillhouse was eventually obtained by Ullian not from Danielsen’s attorney as part of discovery, but directly from the restaurant.
The case is set to be heard by Senior Judge James Midelis, who longtime island readers might remember as the judge who presided over the eight-week fraud trial of swindler Ira Hatch in 2010. With multiple plaintiffs, two separate respondents and three teams of attorneys, this complex civil case could take a week or longer, which is why Cox brought Midelis in to help with her trial caseload.
Danielsen’s attorney was hoping to delay next week’s trial due to a family wedding, but Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox ruled that the case had already been continued too many times, and that the family wedding events the attorney used as the basis of his request only took up two court days, May 29 and 30, while the rest of the travel time was to be a family vacation which did not meet the legal precedent for yet another delay.
It’s unclear if Danielsen and Jewkes-Danielsen are still living together or regularly communicating, as the day of a recent hearing in civil court, a few hours after Jewkes-Danielsen had pleaded guilty in criminal court to vehicular manslaughter for the same fatal car crash, Paul Danielsen greeted his lawyer in the corridor asking, “What happened this morning?” presumably referring to the change of plea hearing before Circuit Judge Robert Meadows.
Numerous barrier island residents, physicians and friends of the Ingrahams and Indian River Shores Public Safety officers are scheduled to testify in the civil case next week.
