Winslow mother wins suit over crash with U.S. agent

BANGOR – The mother of a Caribou teen has been awarded $95,000 in damages for injuries he suffered two years ago in a car accident with an on-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Lora Levesque of Winslow sued the U.S. government – the employer of Border Patrol Agent Dennis Harmon, 37, of Hodgdon – earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Bangor on her son’s behalf.

She claimed that Harmon was driving negligently on Jan. 19, 2003, when his vehicle struck the car the boy’s father, Richard Bouchard, 35, of Caribou, was driving.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk agreed in an opinion issued Thursday. She presided over a one-day trial in the case last week.

“We feel that this was a good example of the court system working as it should,” Levesque’s attorney, Daniel Kagan of Lewiston, said Friday. “The judge understood that the federal employee was negligent and that the boy suffered real and legitimate injuries.”

The lawsuit was filed after a claim for damages to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was denied.

The boy, referred to as BB in the lawsuit and 15 at the time of the accident, was visiting his father, Richard Bouchard, 37, of Caribou, when the accident occurred.

Bouchard and his son made two trips from an uncle’s residence on Route 1 in Caribou to a nearby convenience store on Jan. 19, 2003, during a snowstorm. On both occasions, Bouchard drove a Dodge Daytona and his son rode in the passenger seat.

On the second trip, he was driving down a hill on Route 1 toward the store at about 30 mph and Harmon was driving up the hill in his government SUV going about 45 mph.

Harmon lost control of the SUV, and it spun 90 degrees counterclockwise into Bouchard’s lane and then hit the other vehicle nearly head-on.

Bouchard and his son were injured and both had to be extricated from their vehicle. The teenager was trapped inside the car for almost an hour, according to court documents. It could not be verified at the time whether the father and son were wearing seat belts.

Bouchard suffered two broken legs, a fractured arm and other injuries in the accident, according to Maine State Police. His son suffered a ruptured spleen, a broken big toe and superficial lacerations. After his release from The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, it was discovered that BB’s sternum was fractured.