Former Fresno State student wins in court

Cassandra Cross awarded $1.4 million more than year after accident; says she doesn't care that she won't see money

By Laban Pelz
The Collegian

In February 2004, Fresno State student Cassandra Cross was walking through the parking lot after a Sunday evening at the library.

At the same time, John Stiles was backing his Chevrolet Silverado out of a parking space in the same lot south of Henry Madden Library, when a chainsaw on the cab floor hit the accelerator, University Police said.

Police said the truck sped out of the control of Stiles, shot in reverse, jumped a curb, knocked down a handicapped parking sign, and then hit Cross, dragging her 30 feet before coming to a stop.

Then a senior liberal studies major, Cross sustained a broken hip, shoulder, pelvis and vertebra, among other injuries.

Though the accident paralyzed Cross for a few days, put her in hospitals for a month and a wheelchair for six weeks, she still graduated in May.

“Literally, she walked,” Cross’ attorney Mike Renburg said. “She was out of the wheelchair a week before graduation.”

With accommodation from the university, and what a former professor described as pure self-determination, Cross completed 19 units her final semester, and is now pursuing a Master’s degree in special education at CSU Northridge.

Cross still lives with the effects of the accident every day, which Renburg said will create a “life-long earning disparity.” This was his argument when Cross went to trial against Stiles last June.

Though the judge ordered Stiles to pay $1.4 million in damages to Cross, Renburg said Cross likely will not see any of the money, as Stiles had only minimal insurance and little money himself.

Cross said Stiles has since moved his assets to Texas, where the Homestead Act protects a person’s wealth from legal action if the money is invested in a home.

Stiles’ attorney, Kurt Boyd, was unavailable for comment.

Cross said she doesn’t care about the money, and is just happy to be alive and walking.

“I would pay double to not have to go through that again,” she said.

Cross described the trial as nerve-wracking, as it was the first time she had seen Stiles since the accident. She said she had a memory of Stiles standing over her as she lay on the ground after the accident.

“I was worried about having to see him again, but when I entered the courtroom, there were only four people there, and I couldn’t pick him out,” Cross said. “I really think God was protecting me by not letting me recognize him.”

While money isn’t important to Cross, education, she said, is.

“Before I asked ‘can I walk again?’ I asked ‘will I graduate?’” she said, remembering her first words after the accident.

Cross did graduate, but her plans for after had to change.

“She had planned to stay in Fresno after she graduated, and then travel along the East Coast,” Cross’ mother, Melanie Cross, said. “Now, traveling would be just too hard to do.”

Cross moved home with her mother, and began substitute teaching for her former school district while working toward her Master’s degree.

“Once she substituted, the phone rang off the hook. Everyone wanted her,” Melanie said.

In one class of 12- to 14-year-old students with mild learning disabilities, Cross said she posted a collage of pictures of her, taken when she was in the hospital, so they could see what she had to overcome to be there.

“I would come to class after surgery, and my students would ask why I was there, and I would say ‘because education is important,’” she said.

For her Master’s degree, Cross chose an emphasis she can relate to; teaching students with mild to moderate disabilities.

“I know what the kids are going through.”

What Cross went through was two weeks at University Medical Center, followed by another two at Leon S. Peters Rehabilitation Center, before spending six weeks in a wheelchair, her mother said.

Cross’ residence at the time was a second-floor Fresno apartment, so Fresno State gave her a room on Homan Hall’s first floor, and a pass to the dining facility, free of charge.

Though she needed assistance with her daily routine, those around her said Cross did as much as possible on her own.

Drama professor Roxanne Schroeder-Arce had Cross in a class the semester before the accident, and said she was someone Cross had told her mother to call. She said she visited Cross the next day in the hospital, and was there when she was first able to sit up.

“She wasn’t focused on what had happened,” Roxanne Schroeder-Arce said. “She was focused on what she needed to do.”

Schroeder-Arce said she was willing to talk to Cross’ professors to see if they could give her any assistance, but Cross didn’t need, or want, any help.

“She took care of things herself,” she said.

As a nurse, Melanie knew how to help care for her daughter when Cross suddenly found herself immobilized in a University Medical Center bed.

“As a nurse, I knew what was coming through stages of recovery,” she said.

One thing Melanie knew was that the longer a patient lies inactive, the more likely it will be that the patient goes to a nursing home, and will not be given a bed in a rehabilitation center.

“For her to qualify for rehab, she had to sit up,” Melanie said.

It was the Friday after the accident, and Cross had been on her back in bed for five days. Melanie said she knew her daughter had to sit up before the weekend came.

“If she had laid in bed that long, they would have said ‘look, she’s been in bed for seven days. She doesn’t qualify for rehab.’”

Melanie said it took herself and two hospital workers to help Cross sit up.

“It was painful, but she did it.”

Though being a nurse had its advantages, Melanie said it was at times difficult to deal with the knowledge that came with the job.

“I’ve seen plenty of people injured like her who have never walked again,” she said.

Today Cross can walk. To keep her daughter active and mobile, Melanie gave Cross a black Labrador Retriever last Christmas to take care of. Cross named the dog Jasper, and the two walk between a half hour and an hour a day, Cross said.

Though Cross can walk, she still will have to deal with what the accident did to her body.

There are things Cross can’t do, such as stand or sit for an extended period of time, or walk great distances.

“I used to go to hip-hop concerts, and used to coach in the Special Olympics, but can’t anymore,” she said.

She said she also has a lacerated knee that became infected and required antibiotics, and she may some day need a hip replacement if arthritis sets in.

Cross said she isn’t worried about the medical bills

“After the trial,” Melanie said, “Cassandra said something to me that tells you a lot about her:

‘I’m going to have a piece of paper that says I’m a millionaire, and if I never see the money, I’ll never spend the money, and for the rest of my life I’ll be a millionaire.’

“That’s how much she doesn’t care about the money.”

Melanie said the bulk of Cross’ income goes toward her recovery. She is grateful for the hospitals not charging Cross all she owed.

“Because of Mr. Renburg, UMC and (Leon S.) Peters Center graciously accepted pennies on the dollar,” Melanie said.

“God’s hand always provides for those who believe.”

Cross said she is also thankful.

“For the fact that I’m alive. I thank God every day that I can walk.”

She now walks more than she ever did before the accident, Cross said.

“A couple miles is just a short distance to me,” she said. “I’m amazed when people drive places when they can walk.

“People ask me why I walk so much, and I say ‘if you ever had that privilege taken away, you’d walk every chance you had.’”