A judge has rejected an offer from actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s legal team to “bring in treats” for courtroom security at her trial in Utah.
The unusual request prompted a courtroom objection, leading the judge to say “thank you, but no thank you”.
Ms Paltrow is accused of causing a collision that left retired eye doctor Terry Sanderson, 76, concussed.
He is seeking $300,000 (£244,000) in damages. She denies blame for the crash in February 2016 and has countersued.
Ahead of testimony on the third day of the 50-year-old Oscar winner’s civil trial in Park City, her attorney Steve Owens said: “Private security for my client wanted to bring in treats for the bailiffs for how helpful they’ve been.”
“So, I wanted to do that transparently and see if there are any objections,” he added.
Lawyers for Mr Sanderson swiftly objected, prompting Judge Kent Holmberg to say: “OK, there’s an objection so thank you, but no thank you.”
But he said either party could “decide to do that later” if they wished.
It’s unclear what treats her team was prepared to offer.
During Thursday’s proceedings, the plaintiff’s daughter, Polly Sanderson-Grasham, said her father had been “outgoing and engaged” before his ski accident, but now gets “agitated” and is “easily frustrated”.
Ms Sanderson-Grasham, 49, detailed an occasion after the accident when she said she really noticed the changes in her father.
“He was sitting in a chair by the window and I almost expected drool to be coming out of his mouth,” she said.
“First of all, he wasn’t engaged with anybody. He had kind of taken himself to a remote corner and that was my first real kind of slap in the face of, like, something’s terribly wrong.”
However, under cross-examination she accepted that her dad was on occasion “frequently frustrated” and “overstepping the boundaries” before the collision.
She added that her father had become “obsessed” with the trial and badly wanted an apology.
Mr Sanderson lost consciousness for several minutes after the crash, and suffered a concussion and four fractured ribs, according to his legal action.
A doctor who gave evidence on Thursday morning said the plaintiff had sustained a traumatic brain injury that “completely changed his life”.
Dr Alina Fong, a neuropsychologist, said Mr Sanderson had been “struggling with concussion symptoms for a year and a half” when she first saw him in May 2017.
She said Mr Sanderson reported symptoms, including “mood and personality changes, pain as well as headaches”.
Asked whether there was any indication he was faking his symptoms, Dr Fong said there was “none whatsoever”.
The incident on a beginners’ slope at the upmarket Utah ski resort took place while Ms Paltrow was skiing with her family.
Mr Sanderson’s lawyers say the movie-star-turned-lifestyle-influencer was uphill on the slope and crashed into him from behind, with his injuries providing evidence of this.
But her defence team say she had begun descending the slope when a man collided into her back.
They have focused on Mr Sanderson’s medical conditions from before the collision, including vision and hearing loss from a stroke.
Ms Paltrow is seeking $1 in damages plus attorneys’ fees. She is expected to give evidence on Friday.
BBC
