More than five and a half years after a jury awarded $12.2 million to a pedestrian injured after he was hit by an alleged drunken driver, the state Supreme Court has sided with the Connecticut Appellate Court in reversing the award.

Soon after the jurors returned the verdict to Thomas Ventura in his lawsuit against the town of East Haven, the judge in the case cut the award to $6.2 million. That is where it stood until Jan. 17, when the state's high court ruled 5-0 that there was clear evidence of governmental immunity shielding local police from liability in the incident. The high court's ruling means Ventura will get nothing.

Related story: Judge Cuts $12.2 Million Personal Injury Verdict in Half

At issue was a 2006 incident at a McDonald's drive-thru involving Vlad Trnka, who was accused of nearly causing a rear-end collision. Police records say Trnka was shouting at a female passenger in his truck and appeared to be intoxicated or on drugs. As it turned out, local police drove Trnka and the woman to their respective homes to sober up. The truck was never impounded even though it later emerged that Trnka was driving a 1997 construction truck with a license plate registered to a Ford truck.

More trouble followed when Trnka later retrieved his truck, but was allegedly speeding when he sideswiped Ventura, who was 18 at the time. The impact threw Ventura about 20 feet and caused him to land on his head, according to court records.

Ventura suffered a brain bleed with temporary cognitive impairment and can no longer have children because of the incident. His attorneys maintained that East Haven Police had a ministerial duty to tow the vehicle, based on the department towing rules. However, the town argued governmental immunity shielded the police.

The jury sided with Ventura, returning a multimillion-dollar verdict.

Then came the appeals.

The town urged the Appellate Court and then the Supreme Court to reject the plaintiff's argument, and to state that immunity, including the issue of ministerial duty, was a question for the court, and not for a jury. The Supreme Court agreed.

Read the full ruling 

Writing for the majority, Supreme Court Associate Justice Richard Palmer ruled, “The Appellate Court correctly determined that the issue of whether the town's tow rules imposed a ministerial duty on [Officer] Jeffrey Strand to have Trnka's vehicle towed was a question of law for resolution by the court that is subject to plenary review on appeal and was not a question of fact for the jury.”

Palmer added: “The town's tow rules did not apply to town police officers, but were written solely to regulate tow-truck companies and their operators doing business with the town and, accordingly, Strand did not have a ministerial duty to have Trnka's vehicle towed.”

In a statement emailed Thursday to the Connecticut Law Tribune, Cowdery & Murphy attorney James Healy, one of Ventura's two lawyers, said he was “disappointed by the Supreme Court's decision.”

“Our hearts break for Tommy Ventura, a young man who was seriously injured through no fault of his own,” Healy said. “Although we believe that the verdict rendered by the jury was fair and appropriate, and should have been upheld on appeal, we nevertheless respect the Supreme Court's decision.”

Also representing Ventura is Joel Faxon of New Haven-based Faxon Law Group.

Aaron Bayer, one of two Wiggin & Dana attorneys representing East Haven, told the Connecticut Law Tribune Thursday the town has “nothing but sympathy” for Ventura, but said police should not be held responsible for Trnka's behavior.

“I thought it was a good thing that the Supreme Court reaffirmed the importance of governmental immunity for municipalities,” Bayer said. “We don't really want judges and juries to be second-guessing the judgment police officers have to make on the job without the benefit of hindsight. We want them [officers] to responsibly be exercising their judgment on the job without worrying about the fear of liability based on hindsight.”

Assisting Bayer on the case was Tadhg Dolley.

Trnka served one year in prison for third-degree assault. He was also sentenced in 2015 for the incident with Ventura. In that case, he was charged with evading responsibility for death or serious injury, and sentenced to 23 months in prison followed by five years of probation.