If you’ve been following our updates with the Gwyneth Paltrow ski crash case, you already know how crazy it’s been! If not, strap on a helmet…
The lawsuit against Gwyneth was filed by a retired optometrist named Terry Sanderson over a 2016 collision on the slopes. He says the actress crashed into him from behind on a beginner’s ski course and left him with “a brain injury, four broken ribs, and other serious injuries.” The suit claims she left without asking if he was okay. Sanderson also says Gwyneth’s ski instructor Eric Christiansen was told to handle the situation — and filed an incident report alleging Sanderson was the one that ran into Paltrow instead.
So what exactly happened? For what seemed like a simple dispute, the jury sure has their work cut out for them.
Related: Gwyneth Reveals The Strangest Wellness Thing She’s Ever Tried
Just last week the Avengers star went as far as to claim on the stands she thought during the collision that Sanderson was attempting to sexually assault her on the Deer Valley resort slopes. She said with their legs tangled up and his “groaning” noises after the crash her mind jumped to the worst:
“Is this someone doing something perverted? I was trying to put together what was happening behind me. He was making some strange noises that sounded male and he was large so I assumed he was a male. I was confused at first because it’s a very strange thing to happen on a ski slope. I got very upset a few seconds later. There was a body pressing against me and he was making a groaning noise. I didn’t know, is this a practical joke or is someone doing something perverted?”
Was she trying to excuse running away? To discredit the plaintiff in the jury’s mind? Or was she just being totally honest? Whatever the reason, it was a shocking thing to say. But Gwyneth’s overall strategy — referring to being recognized and harassed by normies — seems to rely on giving the jury the idea this was an intentional act by Sanderson. Which makes this one piece of evidence look really bad for him…
See, Sanderson apparently sent an email to his daughters shortly after the accident with the subject line reading “I’m Famous.” Yikes…
The 76-year-old’s response to questions about this, as he explained to the jury on Monday, is that his head was “scrambled” after suffering a brain injury:
“Again, my head was scrambled, [but] all I was trying to do was desperately communicate with my kids before they heard from somebody else [that] I got crushed. I didn’t pick my words well, not at all how I felt, and I was really trying to add a little levity to a serious situation and it backfired.”
It’s certainly possible he was just broaching the serious subject of his injury with terrible dad humor. But the fact he brought up her fame doesn’t look good at all, not when she’s trying to argue he’s doing this just because of who she is. Will his explanation satisfy the jury?
Sanderson also recalled telling his daughter there must be someone out there with footage of the incident — but not him. He sometimes wears a GoPro camera while skiing but unfortunately forgot it that day, so he didn’t have any footage of his own. He maintained:
“I would have loved to have [footage]. It was what we needed.”
Another eye-opening detail? In his own version of the accident, Sanderson recalls hearing a “blood-curdling scream” coming from behind him right before the crash:
“I just remember everything was great and then I heard something I’ve never heard at a ski resort, and that was a blood-curling scream. And then, boom, it was like somebody was out of control and gonna hit a tree and was gonna die. That’s what I [remembered] until I was hit.”
It sounds plausible that someone on a beginner’s ski course would scream like that if they lost control and didn’t know what to do… Even if they were an Oscar-winning actress. Did anyone else hear the scream? Was anyone else close enough? These are all questions the defense will be sure to point out….
Sanderson also once again detailed for the jury just how hard the collision was, describing:
“I got hit in my back so hard… right at my shoulder-blades, and the fists and the poles were right there at the bottom of my shoulder-blades, serious, serious smack. Never been hit that hard.”
Ch-ch-check out his full testimony (below):
This case is definitely shaping up to be pretty interesting. Whose side are U on, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF (below).
[Image via YouTube/Law&Crime Network]
