> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jury awards $1M to mothers of victims - URL: https://www.smdp.com/jury-awards-1m-to-mothers-of-victims/ - Published: 2003-11-25T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T03:16:07.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Movie director plans to appeal jury’s verdict* Jurors here awarded $1 million Monday to the mothers of two men killed when an out-of-control driver smashed into a popular bar on Wilshire Boulevard. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated only about an hour before reaching the verdict, which granted $500,000 each to the mothers of Noah Baum, 34, and David Roos, 26. Defendant Eric Red, a 42-year-old movie director, reportedly rear-ended another car before smashing into Q’s Billiard Club and Restaurant at 11835 Wilshire Blvd. in May of 2000\. Earlier this year, Red was found liable by a Texas court for the crash, which caused several other serious injuries. John Doherty, his attorney, said Red will appeal the verdict. Though the two victims did not know each other, their mothers sat side by side in the courtroom. Neither reacted as the clerk read the jury’s verdict. Afterward, they seemed relieved. “What made me happy is not the money. What made me happy is the opportunity to be heard by the judge,” said Nilda Roos, a Chilean immigrant who helped her son battle schizophrenia. “My child was killed in a malicious way — this made me at least release. I can go home and feel a little more comfortable that at least something was done.” At issue in the case was only how much money the mothers of the two victims should receive from Red. During closing arguments, the plaintiffs’ attorneys avoided specifying an exact figure but hinted at figures from $600,000 up to millions of dollars. 58D,“How can somebody value a life? It just seems impossible,” said attorney Brandon Baum, the older brother of Noah, who prosecuted the case for his mother, Willa Baum. “No parent should ever be asked to bury a child... and when something unnatural like that happens in society, it calls out for” the courts to hold someone financially responsible. Doherty accused the plaintiffs of playing on jurors’ sympathies to arrive at an inflated verdict. In his closing argument, he asked jurors to award each of the mothers $15,000 for the loss of their sons. “It’s human nature to want to punish... and what you’re being asked to do is punish,” Doherty said. “(But) there’s no compensation for (the two deaths).” Red, who did not testify in the trial, sat through closing arguments in Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Lorna Parnell’s courtroom. He did not return to hear the jury’s verdict. Foreman Leonard Shapiro said some jurors wanted to award more money while others were philosophically opposed to giving any substantial award. After only about an hour of deliberating, the group agreed 10 to 2 to award each mother $500,000\. Several thousand dollars more were awarded for funeral and burial expenses, something Red did not dispute. “There really wasn’t an issue,” said Shapiro, a 49-year-old graphic designer who lives in Woodland Hills, of the deliberations. “With the exception of the two jurors, we all concurred.” Red, who directed the 1991 film “Body Parts,” said he passed out because he suffers from Syncope, a fainting syndrome, and didn’t wake up until inside the bar. He tried to avoid liability by filing for bankruptcy in Austin, Tex., where Red lived briefly. U.S. Bankruptcy judge Frank Monroe in February sharply rebuffed Red’s claims and ruled that Red deliberately rammed into the bar after rear-ending another car in what one witness described as a bout of road rage. Red said the crash was an accident. The driver of the car Red rear-ended said he was slumped over his wheel and passed out before he smashed into Q’s, Doherty countered. He said medical experts agreed that Syncope causes muscle contractions that would cause Red to hit the accelerator and drive into the bar. Neither the experts nor the driver of the other car were able to testify in the trial because Parnell accepted Monroe’s ruling rather than having the issue of liability considered by the jury. 471,“This has never been presented and we are going to appeal what happened, because we think Judge Parnell made an error,” Doherty said, adding that a bankruptcy judge shouldn’t have the final word on a car-crash liability case. Eric Baum, another one of Noah’s older brothers, said he was content with the amount of the jury’s verdict. “I think that the jury showed respect for the process and came back with an amount that reflected the value of human life,” he said. Baum went on to describe the details of his brother’s death, as recounted by a friend who survived the crash but whose leg was shattered from the impact of Red’s Jeep Cherokee, which reportedly entered the bar at 35 miles per hour. “He was just having a beer, relaxing,” Baum said, pausing to choke back tears. “Probably the last thing Noah did in his life, he yelled out a warning because he saw the truck coming. Maybe he saved someone’s life.” > “Probably the last thing Noah did in his life, he yelled out a warning because he saw the truck coming. Maybe he saved someone’s life.” — — ERIC BAUM Brother of victim *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 25, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)