Reporter: Anne Kruger


El Cajon case about dream lost

Ted Walker says his lifelong dream of becoming an engineer was shattered the day he got into a fight with a member of the wrestling team at Valhalla High School in El Cajon.

Walker, who had been accepted as a mechanical engineering major at the University of California at San Diego, noticed after the fight in 1986 that he no longer could concentrate on his studies or do the math problems that had come so easily to him.

Tests indicated that his IQ, which had been tested at 130, had dropped 10 to 12 points, which doctors attributed to a brain injury from the fight. Walker switched from an engineering major to a less-demanding major.

He sued John Miller, the student who fought with him, claiming that the injury meant he would earn less in his lifetime because he could not enter the high-paying engineering field.

Yesterday, a jury in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge William Pate agreed, and awarded Walker $621,000. The award would be paid from Miller’s homeowner’s insurance, said Walker’s attorney, David Casey Jr.

Walker, now 22, said he was pleased with the jury’s verdict.

"I’m really ecstatic. I would much rather have my old self back again, but I’m very happy," he said.

The fight occurred Feb. 20, 1986, as Walker and Miller, then both high school seniors, were starting gym class. Miller grabbed Walker and squeezed his head between his knees, then tried to pull down his pants to embarrass him, Casey said.

Miller’s attorney, Andrew Zanger of Los Angeles, could not be reached for comment. Casey said Zanger did not contest that a fight occurred, but contended that Walker was not injured. Miller did not appear in court during the trial, he said.

After the fight, Walker returned to his classes. He became confused, noticed a tingling in his arm and fell asleep in one class, Casey said. He was taken to the hospital, where he remained for four days after doctors found bleeding in his brain through a CAT scan test.

Casey said that later tests by a neuropsychologist showed a loss in Walker’s short-term memory abilities. Although Walker consistently made A and B grades in high school, he scored poorly on a preparatory exam for his mechanical engineering major.

"He lost the finer edge in terms of being able to deal with the harder equations," Casey said. "After the injury, he’d go in and study the courses and he just could not retain the information."

Walker said he noticed that he started having difficulties with his schoolwork immediately after the accident, and the academic difficulties continued in college.

"I was having problems with some of my classes. My grades at UCSD were lower than they should have been," Walker said.

Walker was forced to drop his plans to obtain an engineering degree, and switched to a communications major.

Casey said he presented evidence indicating that Walker would earn $400,000 less over his lifetime because he could not become an engineer.

Walker, a senior at UCSD, said he doesn’t know what he’ll do when he graduates from college.