Victorious in Dallas court, immigrant disfigured by fire still faces battles

Isabel Cristina Molina fled to Dallas from her birthplace in Honduras to get away from daily beatings at the hands of her husband.
She thought leaving would be the beginning of a healing process, but tragedy followed her. She was cleaning the kitchen at the end of a long shift as a cook in a short-order food truck when suddenly her body and everything around her was on fire.
“I don’t know what started it, I don’t know where the flame came from,” said Molina, 37. Her arms, hair and legs were ablaze “in seconds,” she said.

Molina managed to climb out the back of the truck with blisters and other burns across more than 50 percent of her body. The accident, which happened 10 years ago today, transformed her, creating a lifelong struggle “so difficult you couldn’t even imagine,” she said.

After years of legal battles, a judge in Dallas earlier this month granted her a $2.5 million judgment in a civil suit against the truck operator. According to court records, a co-worker poured “a flammable substance on the truck’s floor to loosen the grease,” and that substance — later determined to be gasoline — was ignited by a pilot light.

The hefty settlement won’t do much to ease the suffering that the mother of five has endured.

She was in a coma for two months, spent three more in the hospital recovering and has had dozens of surgeries and rehabilitative therapies — with more to come.

“There are a lot of things I can’t do,” said Molina, who now works in Virginia at a day care center. “I used to be able to wear short skirts and short-sleeve shirts. I can’t be out in the sun for very long because my skin blisters and it hurts so much.”
Molina sued in 2003. A Dallas County jury in 2007 held the truck operator, Juan Miguel “Mike” Bonilla, responsible for the accident. Years of appeals followed before the case was settled on Feb. 2 and Molina was paid.

Her attorney, Mark Sudderth of the Noteboom law firm in Hurst, described his client as courageous and strong in her religious faith throughout the ordeal. He said he hoped the settlement, which includes about $700,000 in interest, would help her and her children “salvage their lives and get their lives on track.”

“It was a sad deal,” Sudderth said. “She had horrific injuries, and she never gave up, and in the end, justice was served.”
In an odd twist, Bonilla and his attorney, Forest Nelson, eventually wound up on the same side as Molina and Sudderth as they fought successfully to make Bonilla’s insurance company pay Molina’s damages.

“Oftentimes as lawyers, we don’t have the opportunity to feel like we’ve done something to benefit our clients,” said Nelson, of Burt Barr & Associates in Oak Cliff. “This is one of those cases where we feel like we did have the opportunity to do something to benefit our clients.”

Nelson said Molina is “a nice lady, and like all of us, she just keeps plugging along.”
Molina still has difficult battles ahead. An immigrant with no U.S. citizenship, she’s facing a deportation hearing soon. She knows many people are hateful toward illegal immigrants, and has grown to expect the resentment. But she says she wants to inspire other immigrants not to let that bring them down.

“Immigrants need to stand up for themselves,” she said. “We’re going to hear negativity. They’re going to tell us ‘no.’ But we have to fight for our rights and respect.”

One thing that may help in her fight to stay in the country is that she was a witness to a crime. She said six men assaulted her son one evening as he walked home from work, sending him to the hospital. Molina said her son’s attackers were tried and given jail time.

There are also medical reasons she needs to stay in the U.S., her attorney said. “On part of her body, she can’t sweat,” said Sudderth.

Molina said the last 10 years have taken a toll on her children — who ranged in age from 5 to 12 when they arrived in Dallas. They remain her motivation to keep going. She said things have been even more difficult because she was well physically when she arrived, but “I’m not anymore.”

“It’s been a drastic change for them,” said Molina. “I’m proud of how they have handled it.”

Molina plans to use the settlement money to pay medical bills and find the best possible reconstructive surgeon to restore her scarred skin. Several of her fingers have been reduced to knobs, and surgeons had to remold her lips to help her talk.

No matter what happens, Molina vows not to give up.

“In a fight, I don’t think the physical matters,” she said, recalling the escape from her abusive husband and years of legal battles. “What matters is in our hearts.”

Cristina Molina - Telemundo

Source: Dallas Morning News