Shae Sanderson accuses Gwyneth Paltrow of ‘ignoring’ her father in mountain ski crash
Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial over a skiing accident has entered its second week.
The incident took place on the slopes of Flagstaff Mountain, part of the luxury Deer Valley Resort near Park City, Utah, on 26 February 2016 when Ms Paltrow and retired optometrist Dr Terry Sanderson collided on a beginner’s course known as the Bandana Run. Ms Paltrow claimed it was Mr Sanderson who plowed into her.
Mr Sanderson, 76, alleges he was left with “permanent traumatic brain injury, four broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress and disfigurement”.
Last week, lawyers for Ms Paltrow argued that retired optometrist Mr Sanderson deleted GoPro video of the collision because it would unequivocally disprove his claims that Ms Paltrow rammed into him.
The rumoured footage was mentioned by Mr Sanderson’s daughter after he emailed her a link to his ski discussion forum on the Meetup website — she later testified she believed such video probably existed but had not seen it herself. Ms Paltrow’s attorney Steven Owens said his team had attempted to open the link but it was purposely faulty.
But tech investigator Michael Fletcher told CourtTV it only took two minutes to access the information in the link. While the link did not direct to the infamous GoPro video, it did reveal several exchanges between Mr Sanderson and witness Craig Ramon.
“They kept repeating, ‘It’s the most important piece of evidence,’ and they couldn’t figure it out,” Mr Fletcher said. “They [just] didn’t know how to open the link ... Honestly, it’s comical how easy it was, I can’t believe they didn’t do this already. It’s almost a joke ... [It was] just common sense.”
Mr Sanderson filed for damages in January 2019 and is seeking $300,000 in compensation for the injuries he sustained, prompting the actress to file a countersuit in which she asks for a symbolic $1 should she win and for her legal expenses to be covered.
