Sacramento Kings minority owner Phil Oates has been ordered by a jury to pay $15.8 million to the widow of a retired California Highway Patrol officer he killed in a car crash.
The widow of the officer who lost his life in a motorcycle collision with Oates on a suburban street in 2024 was awarded the nearly $16 million by a Placer County jury this week.
The Sacramento Bee reports that the unanimous 12-0 verdict is a small portion of the $45 million Miranda Flores had requested in compensation for her husband Patrick Mulderrig’s death. Nevertheless, it is four times the amount that Phil Oates’ lawyer determined should be paid.
“I’m happy the jury is holding the responsible party accountable,” Miranda Flores said. “I’ll miss Patrick until the day I die.”
The jury awarded her $2.3 million for pain and suffering, $2.5 million in economic damages for the loss of her husband’s pension and other financial contributions, and $11 million for the loss of his companionship and love.
“Patrick impacted our families and my life every day,” Flores told KCRA News. “I hope Phil Oates now fully understands what his actions have cost our families.”
Phil Oates, the chairman of Buzz Oates, a commercial real estate firm founded by his father, declined to comment after the jury’s ruling. Oates was part of a group that “banded together at the request of Mayor Kevin Johnson [in 2019] to show the NBA that Sacramento was serious about keeping [the Kings],” according to The Kings Herald.
What happened in the accident?
The 75-year-old Oates was not impaired by drugs or alcohol, and he was not charged or cited for any offenses related to the May traffic accident that killed Patrick Mulderrig.
The lawsuit stated that on the evening of May 14, 2024, Mulderrig was riding his Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycle west on Douglas Boulevard in Placer County. When Phil Oates was traveling in the opposite direction in a Cadillac, he turned left near the intersection with Kingsgate Drive and struck Mulderrig’s motorcycle.
Oates said during the trial that he spotted Mulderrig coming before he started to turn, according to Flores’s lawyers. Oates also admitted to police that Mulderrig’s motorcycle was traveling faster than he expected.
The former CHP communications officer was thrown into the air when the motorcycle struck the rear passenger side of Oates’ Cadillac, twisting it around 180 degrees. Mulderrig never woke up after hitting the ground approximately fifteen feet from the Cadillac. He was transported to a Roseville hospital, where he passed away five hours later.
“The reality is that Mr. Oates should have been criminally prosecuted,” Attorney Roger Dreyer, who represented Miranda Flores, said in a statement, according to Fox 40 News. “He saw Patrick coming and instead of waiting and allowing him to pass, he turned in front of him, costing Patrick his life. The district attorney chose not to prosecute. This jury heard the evidence, recognized the extraordinary loss to Miranda and held Mr. Oates accountable.”