BANGOR – A federal judge Monday awarded an Aroostook County man $1.1 million in damages for injuries he suffered more than four years ago in an accident with a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock awarded the money to Richard Bouchard, 39, of Caribou for injuries he suffered in a 2003 accident in Caribou during a snowstorm. Woodcock presided over a two-day, jury-waived trial in April to determine damages.

The judge found that because of knee replacement surgery and other injuries resulting from the accident, Bouchard no longer could work as a welder and his future income would be severely limited. Woodcock awarded him more than $703,000 in past and future medical bills and lost and future earnings and fringe benefits. Woodcock also awarded him nearly $397,000 for pain and suffering.

Bouchard and his then-15-year-old son were injured on Jan. 19, 2003, when their car was struck by a sport utility vehicle driven by Border Patrol Agent Dennis Harmon, then 37, of Hodgdon during a snowstorm on Route 1 in Caribou.

The boy’s mother, Lora Levesque of Winslow, in early 2004 sued the U.S. government, Harmon’s employer, on her son’s behalf in U.S. District Court in Bangor. The elder Bouchard filed a similar lawsuit in December 2005.

Levesque was awarded $95,000 on her son’s behalf in February 2005 after U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk found that the Border Patrol agent was negligent because he was driving too fast for road conditions. The boy was visiting his father at the time of the accident.

The father’s case moved through the legal system more slowly. The government countersued, arguing that because of Bouchard’s pre-existing medical conditions, substance abuse problems and criminal record, he was entitled to limited damages.

Maine law states that when a person with a pre-existing condition is injured and sues whoever caused the injury, the defendant must prove how damages should be adjusted because of that condition.

“I think it’s a just result,” Bouchard’s attorney, Benjamin Gideon of Lewiston, said Monday. “I think the court very thoroughly accounted for the evidence and issued a thoughtful and well-reasoned decision.”

Efforts to reach Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan Roth, who represented the government, were unsuccessful Monday.

“Mr. Bouchard was not untroubled before the motor vehicle accident,” Woodcock said in the conclusion of his 64-page decision. “He had a bad ankle, a criminal record, and most significantly, an uncontrolled problem with substance abuse. But, with all that, he was a good father, an accomplished welder, and the accident took away his dream to fuse the two: to teach [his son] the welding trade and open a father-son business together.”

At trial, Bouchard demonstrated that “the accident combined with his pre-existing condition has resulted, and will likely continue to result, in a profound degree of past, present, and future pain and suffering,” Woodcock ruled.

The judge also found that the U.S. government had failed to “apportion out Mr. Bouchard’s pre-existing condition from his combined injuries.”

Bouchard and his son made two trips from an uncle’s residence on Route 1 in Caribou to a nearby convenience store the day of the accident. 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 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 in 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 the boy was released from The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, it was discovered that his sternum was fractured.