The retired optometrist suing actor Gwyneth Paltrow for allegedly crashing into him on a ski hill in 2016 took the stand Monday because the buzzed-about trial heads into its second week.
Paltrow, 50, has been accused of inflicting severe damage to Terry Sanderson after she allegedly collided with him whereas snowboarding at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah.
Sanderson, 76, alleged Paltrow skied into him, “knocking him down hard, knocking him out.” He claimed the collision brought on “permanent traumatic brain injury, 4 broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life.”
He maintains that Paltrow left him collapsed on the slope and skied away. He is suing Paltrow for greater than US$300,000.
Paltrow denies any accountability for the crash and is countersuing for $1 and legal professionals’ charges. She claims Sanderson is the one who hit her and is now suing to “exploit her celebrity and wealth.”
Before calling Sanderson on Monday, his lawyer first recalled Craig Ramon, the only eyewitness to the ski crash, to testify once more. Ramon was proven a number of messages he despatched shortly after the ski collision, which claimed he noticed Sanderson injured by Paltrow.
Sanderson subsequent took the stand. He mentioned previous to the accident he was an “advanced-intermediate” skier who often hit the slopes two or thrice every week.
He mentioned recounting the accident is “hard” for him. Sanderson testified he heard a “bloodcurdling scream” earlier than he was hit within the again by one other individual on skis, presumably Paltrow. He mentioned the individual’s ski poles hit beneath his shoulder blades and despatched him “flying.”
Sanderson mentioned he fell to the bottom and briefly “blacked out.” When he got here to, Sanderson testified he couldn’t transfer however knew there was a person shouting at him. The unknown man, in accordance with Sanderson, was making an attempt to “bully” him into believing he’d harm somebody within the accident.
Sanderson testified that he solely realized it was Paltrow who had allegedly hit him after he was helped down the slope and obtained medical consideration.
“I’m living another life now,” Sanderson mentioned, referring to the lasting accidents he claimed to have sustained from the accident. He testified that he can not ski anymore.
Sanderson mentioned he will get simply misplaced and has had “difficult” relationships along with his household because the ski collision. He grew to become emotional on the stand, recounting how his daughters have reacted to alleged modifications in his persona attributable to mind trauma.
He mentioned the accident has made him a “self-imposed recluse” and brought on him to lose his “spark” for all times.
Upon cross-examination, Paltrow’s lawyer, Stephen Owens, insisted there have been a number of inconsistencies between Sanderson’s testimony and an earlier deposition. One such inconsistency Owens identified was the period of time Sanderson claimed to be unconscious after the collision, with various time frames within the deposition, his testimony and numerous medical data.
After Sanderson’s testimony, Paltrow’s legal professionals are anticipated to name on her two kids, 16-year-old Moses and 18-year-old Apple — who have been current on the day of the incident — together with a ski teacher.
On Friday afternoon, Paltrow informed a lawyer from Sanderson’s staff that she “was not engaging in any risky behaviour” on the day of the crash, saying she was snowboarding together with her two children in addition to with Brad Falchuk — her boyfriend on the time, now her husband — and his two children.
The group was taking ski classes on a inexperienced run, thought of to be the best of runs on a ski hill, on the time, when she mentioned she felt a pair of skis come between her skis, spreading her legs aside, and felt a “large body” hit her from behind.
“There was a body pressing against me and there was a very strange grunting noise,” she testified of the second of the collision. “My brain was trying to make sense of what was happening. I thought, ‘Am I… is this a practical joke? Is someone, like, doing something perverted?’ This is really, really strange,” she mentioned in her testimony, including that she “froze” whereas making an attempt to make sense of what was taking place.
The pair skied down the hill for a brief interval, earlier than “someone’s ski caught an edge,” Paltrow testifed, and so they collapsed, with Paltrow touchdown on prime of Sanderson, their skis entwined.
“He struck me in the back, yes, that’s exactly what happened,” Paltrow mentioned, because the lawyer learn again a portion of her description of the occasions from a deposition.
Gwyneth Paltrow enters the courtroom for her trial on March 24, 2023, in Park City, Utah.
Rick Bowmer / Pool / Getty Images
Paltrow mentioned she waited for Sanderson to face up – “long enough for him to say that he was OK” – earlier than she skied away, including that she didn’t ask about his situation any additional and didn’t know the extent of his accidents on the time.
“I think you have to keep in mind when you’re the victim of a crash, right, your psychology is not necessarily thinking about the person who perpetrated it,” Paltrow testified.
During her testimony, Paltrow mentioned she was left with an “overstretched” proper knee and again ache after Sanderson collided together with her from behind. In a since-viral clip, Paltrow testified she “lost half a day of skiing” because of her alleged accidents. Her legal professionals entered the US$8,980 day by day ski journey receipt into proof on Friday, noting the quantity paid for she and her two kids to make use of the posh slopes.
Paltrow mentioned she feels empathy for Sanderson, however mentioned she didn’t give him mind accidents that confirmed up on an MRI he obtained in 2016.
“I feel very sorry for him. It seems like he’s had a very difficult life, but I did not cause the accident so I cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently happened to him,” she testified.