“I was skiing and two skis came in and threw my legs apart, and one of the torsos pressed me down. There was a very strange grunting sound.”
Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow (51) stood at the testimony stand on the 24th (local time), the fourth day of the trial for damages related to a collision and hit-and-run accident that took place at Deer Valley Ski Resort in Park City, Utah, USA in February 2016. Looking back at the moment of the accident seven years ago, he confessed, “At the time, I thought for a moment that I was being raped.” Paltrow confessed, “I was trying to understand the situation, thinking in my head, ‘What’s going on,’ or ‘Who’s doing this perverted thing?'”
He continued, “The man was clearly behind me,” and denied the hit-and-run claim by retired optometrist Terry Sanderson (76), saying, “I was just too embarrassed and quickly ran away.”
Paltrow was sued for damages of $300,000 (approximately 390 million won), alleging that she had injured the elderly Sanderson and left without taking appropriate relief measures. When Sanderson filed his first lawsuit in January 2019, nearly three years later, he asked for $3.1 million, but lowered the amount when a judge rejected it. Sanderson claims he suffered fractured ribs, brain damage and ongoing following-effects from the crash with Paltrow.
Paltrow filed a countersuit a month later, claiming that Sanderson was responsible for the collision, and asking for damages of one dollar in a symbolic sense. The hearing has been ongoing since the 21st. He said he had a sore knee and that he had a massage followingwards, but he did not accuse Sanderson of sexual assault. In addition, immediately following the collision, he apologized for insulting Sanderson, saying it was wrong.
Sanderson said he was unconscious for several minutes following colliding with Paltrow. After the crash, Paltrow’s children followed him down, claiming that Paltrow used the children as an excuse and left him in the snow, claiming that Paltrow was responsible for everything.
Sanderson’s daughter, Polly Grisham, claimed during the trial that day that her father, who was outgoing and sociable, had changed following a skiing accident into an insecure, easily frustrated, and unwilling to relate to anyone. The attending physician also said, “Sanderson was a person full of energy before, but following the accident, (emotion control ability) suddenly deteriorated.”
Paltrow’s legal representative countered that Sanderson had several health problems prior to the crash, including vision and hearing loss from a stroke.
In Utah, there is a rule that when skiing down, the person on top must avoid the person in front. So, both of them are claiming that they were on the lower side in the complaint. Therefore, it seems that the outcome of the trial will be an issue of who was in the front and the bottom. The hearing resumed on the 27th and will continue for four more days.
One thing I mightn’t laugh at was that on the 23rd, the third day of the trial, the biggest issue was candy. It made headlines when Paltrow and the security team out of the blue suggested that the court constables be too hard on themselves and handed them some candy as gifts, which Sanderson’s attorney and the presiding judge said no.
Senior Reporter Lim Byung-seon
