PARK CITY, Utah (KUTV) — With a judge-ordered deadline on the horizon, Gwyneth Paltrow's defense team began calling its experts in a ski crash jury trial in Park City, Utah, that began on the slopes of the posh Deer Valley Resort in 2016.
The sixth day of Terry Sanderson v Gwyneth Paltrow was underway on Tuesday, following five days that included testimony from both the "Iron Man" actor and Sanderson, a retired optometrist. Sanderson's family also testified, and plaintiff's attorneys called experts to give medical opinions on a permanent brain injury their client claimed happened when he and Paltrow crashed on the slopes.
Both parties say the other is to blame.
Late Tuesday, the jury heard from Paltrow’s two children – in a way.
Apple and Moses Martin – who were 11 and 9, respectively, at the time of the collision – were not in person in the courtroom. But portions of their sworn depositions were read to the jury.
Neither child said they saw the collision occur. Moses testified that he didn’t remember much about the details of what happened, but he said he remembered seeing his mother yelling at Terry Sanderson that he had run into her.
Moses also testified that he did not say “Mom, watch me ski!” or anything like that prior to the crash. He also said his ski instructor, Eric Christiansen – who was skiing with him prior to the incident – did not appear angry at all with Sanderson.
Sanderson has testified that Christiansen yelled at him and essentially bullied him over the collision.
In Apple’s deposition, she said she learned of the collision at lunch after it happened. She said Paltrow came in and told her, “This a--hole ran into me. He ran right into my back.”
Apple said her mother “was in shock, and she was in a bit of pain” and decided not to ski the rest of the day, which was unusual. “She was very clearly, visibly upset, and she had some sort of pain.”
A deposition from Kari Oakes, another ski instructor who was skiing with Apple at the time, was also read to the jury Tuesday afternoon.
Oakes testified Paltrow was agitated after the collision but then checked on Sanderson, and he checked on her. After it was verbalized that everyone was OK, Oakes said, everyone left.
It was just a collision. No harm, no foul,” Oakes said.Oakes testified that she didn’t recall Sanderson needing any help after the collision. She said she didn’t write an incident report that day because no one was hurt, and everyone was able to leave.
Asked if Paltrow was distracted by looking at her children while she was skiing, Oakes said in her deposition,
I can’t say that she was distracted... I did not see her looking at her children.Also Tuesday afternoon, the jury heard from Dr. Steven Edgley, a physician from the University of Utah. Edgley cast doubt on Sanderson's claims that he is suffering from his injuries to this day because the retired optometrist has dealt with many other unrelated health problems
Asked if he believes those things play a role in his current condition, Edgley replied, "absolutely."
Edgley also said that "there is a wide berth of evidence that when the concussion symptoms last for longer than three months, it’s highly correlated with monetary gains or litigation.He testified that, in his opinion, if Sanderson indeed had a concussion from the collision, it was mild.
Before lunch, ski collision expert Paul Baugher testified about the dynamic and sometimes chaotic nature of skiing.
Baugher said roughly six or seven percent of all reported skiing accidents are collisions. He reviewed rules of responsibility for skiers that are posted at ski resorts, including the notion that skiers are responsible for avoiding people in front of them.
The presumption is when people are skiing down a run, the people in front of you aren’t going to have that rear view like you would," Baugher said. "You’d be in a better position as an overtaking skier to see the people in front of you.Later, Baugher added,
You have to ski within your ability, and you want to assume that maybe not everybody’s doing the same thing and leave a margin.One of the day's new witnesses was a biomechanical engineering expert hired by Paltrow's defense.
Dr. Irving Scher testified about the physics of the collision between Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Sanderson. Both have said the other was at fault.
I think Ms. Paltrow’s version is possible,” Scher testified. Asked if he thought it was the more likely of the two accounts about what happened, he said, “considering it’s the only one that matches with the physics of what would happen, yes, I think so.Sanderson’s attorneys tried to poke holes in Scher’s assertions, arguing the collision could have happened the way Sanderson’s friend, Craig Ramon, has previously testified.
But Scher disagreed. He reiterated multiple times that the evidence backs up the actress.
It’s the only version out of the two that matches with the laws of physics, the biomechanics of it,” Scher said.The day kicked off with a technical hitch - a minor but consistent issue in the previous day's proceedings, and a crash in the canyon that connects Salt Lake City to Park City left traffic crawling on the freeway.
Pool cameras were not able to broadcast through the first portion of the day's first witness, leaving Paltrow's and Sanderson's entrance, as well as any instruction from Utah's Third District Judge Kent R. Holmberg and identifying information on the first witness unaired, and some members of the media weren't able to be in the courtroom during the beginning of Tuesday's trial due to the major traffic issues happening en route to the courtroom.
It wasn't immediately clear what caused the delay in livestreaming.
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