Juror Samantha Imrie tells 'Inside Edition' that Gwyneth Paltrow's celebrity status played no role in the jury's decision to side with her and not the plaintiff in the case.
A new documentary is taking a closer look at the trial of the year which pitted an Oscar-winning Hollywood A-lister against a small town, retired optometrist.
'Gwyneth vs. Terry: The Ski Crash Trial" is now streaming on Max, and delves into the tactics employed by the Gwyneth Paltrow's defense team at her Utah ski trial, which some say tore apart the family of plaintiff Terry Sanderson.
Paltrow won the trial in the end thanks to her legal team, but were her lawyers too vicious in court?
Sanderson's former partner Karlene Davidson recalls how brutal it was hearing the testimonies of her ex's daughters.
"When they turned all of his daughters against each other that bothered me a lot. Because I knew all three of those girls," says Davidson. "He was very close to his girls . They loved him they talked to him."
At one point in the proceedings, Sanderson's daughter Polly Gresham became emotional while telling the court that her father is no longer the fun-loving and gregarious man she once knew.
Paltrow's lawyer then discussed an email sent by Sanderson to his daughter after the crash with the subject line "I'm Famous," despite claiming he did not know who Paltrow was at the time of the alleged crash.
"He's famous, because he collided with a celebrity, right," Paltrow's attorney Steven Ownes asked Gresham.
"That's how I take that," the witness responded.
"Do you agree that your dad liked to be in the spotlight?" Owens asked.
"I agree," Gresham answered.
Sanderson did not stay in courtroom for that testimony.
Juror Samantha Imrie tells "Inside Edition" that she saw nothing wrong with Paltrow's defense team or their tactics.
"I don't think her lawyers were unusually vicious. Lawyers are lawyers for a reason," says Imrie. "You have to be aggressive in the courtroom . They were just doing their job."
Imrie also says that Paltrow's celebrity status played no role in the jury's decision to side with her and not the plaintiff in the case.
"I find that opinion a little comical given myself and the other jurors moved here to be in the outdoors and to live off the grid," says Imrie.
Paltrow testified during the trial that she had been skiing with her family when two skis suddenly came between her skis and started to force her legs apart. She said that she then felt a body pressing against her and heard "a strange grunting noise."
Imrie admits that Paltrow's story was also "a little strange," but then adds: "It's one of those things, you can't make those things up."
In the end, she says the jurors concluded after a difficult deliberation that the evidence showed Sanderson was at fault.
"The evidence showed that she was the downhill skier, and the evidence showed that he ran into her," says Imrie.
