A 2-year-old boy is recovering at a Utah hospital after being hit in the head by a stray bullet while playing with other children outside in the fenced area of a day care, police said.
Police have identified a man who was shooting birds with a .22 caliber air rifle in an area west of the day care, which is located in Spanish Fork. The man is cooperating with investigators and will be identified only if formal charges against him are filed, according to the Spanish Fork Police Department.
On Monday, several children were playing “in the vinyl fenced area” staffed by two adults when a child “appeared to stumble and was seen bleeding from the face,” police said. The day care notified the parents who then brought their child to the hospital for treatment, police said.
“Detectives are continuing to investigate where the bullet may have been shot from and why,” Spanish Fork police said in a statement Tuesday. “It appears this was a tragic accident. Open fields are directly west of the daycare and it is believed the round may have come from that area.”
At the hospital, doctors discovered a small caliber bullet lodged in the toddler’s head and he was then transferred to Primary Children’s Hospital where he’s currently in stable condition and improving, according to a Wednesday update from police.
When the investigation is completed, the case will be handed over to Spanish Fork city prosecutors for review of any charges, police said.
“I still feel like I’m in shock,” said Lane Mugleston, who owns the day care with his wife, told CNN affiliate KSLTV. “We are absolutely surprised. We are dumbfounded that this would happen in Spanish Fork.”
Mugleston told KSLTV that at first, the staff didn’t think the child was injured by a stray bullet.
“Initially, we thought he just had tripped and hit his head,” he said.
A Utah mother accused of killing her husband, and then authoring a children’s book about grieving, took out millions of dollars in life insurance on him years before his death, prosecutors alleged.
According to updated charging documents obtained by The Associated Press, prosecutors said that Kouri Richins bought four life insurance policies on behalf of her husband, Eric Richins, without his knowledge from 2015 to 2017, including benefits totaling nearly $2 million.
The woman, age 33, is accused of poisoning her 39-year-old husband in March 2022 by lacing a Moscow mule cocktail with a lethal dose of fentanyl. She reportedly told investigators that she had found her husband unresponsive in the middle of the night, and earlier this month, she was charged with murder.
A statement of probable cause alleged that Kouri Richins had made previous attempts to poison her husband. He once became ill after she made him a drink while on vacation in Greece, it said, and he also became sick after eating a sandwich she made on Valentine’s Day last year.
According to court documents, investigators found messages that Kouri Richins sent to an acquaintance about obtaining drugs including fentanyl and “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” presumably referring to the anesthetic propofol. Prosecutors allege that these substances were used in the attempts to kill her husband.
Before his death, Eric Richins reportedly planned to divorce his wife and changed his will to benefit a sibling rather than her. Three months before his death, however, Kouri Richins made herself the sole beneficiary, according to local news outlet KPCW.
Kouri Richins is pictured in Park City, Utah, on April 12.
According to the AP, Eric Richins met with a divorce attorney and estate planner to cut his wife out of his will in October 2020 after learning about financial moves that Kouri Richins had made without his knowledge.
These allegedly included her taking out a $250,000 home equity line of credit, withdrawing $100,000 from his bank account, spending more than $30,000 on his credit cards, and stealing $134,000 from his business.
Greg Skordas, a spokesperson for Eric Richins’ family, told CBS affiliate KUTV that despite his suspicions that his wife tried to poison him, the man likely wanted to preserve the relationship for his children.
“It appears Eric may have stayed in a relationship that wasn’t good because he loved his boys, and wanted to keep the family relationship together,” Skordas told KUTV. “Maybe he was hopeful things would change, but his number one concern was for his boys.”
After her husband’s death, the widowed mother of three self-published a children’s book about grieving the loss of a loved one. “Are You With Me?” follows the story of a child whose late father continues to watch over them after his death.
In an interview with local station ABC4 in April, Kouri Richins said she and her children began writing as a way to navigate life following Eric Richins’ death.
The new allegations in the updated charging documents have led her detention hearing to be rescheduled. She is next expected in court on June 12.
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After her husband died last year, she wrote a children’s book on grief. Now she’s charged with his murder.
Kouri Richins was arrested on Monday in Utah and is accused in charging documents of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home in Kamas, a small mountain town near Park City. According to a probable cause statement, the victims “told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him,” CBS affiliate KUTV reported.
This photo provided by KPCW.org shows Kouri Richins at the KPCW studio in Park City, Utah, April 12, 2023. Richins was arrested on May 8, 2023 in Utah and is accused in charging documents of poisoning her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home in Kamas.
/ AP
Prosecutors allege that Richins called authorities in the middle of the night in March 2022 to report that her husband, Eric Richins, was “cold to the touch.” The mother of three told officers that she had made her husband a mixed vodka drink to celebrate him selling a home and then went to soothe one of their children to sleep in their bedroom. She later returned and upon finding her husband unresponsive, called 911.
A medical examiner later found five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl in his system.
In addition to the murder charge, Richins also faces charges involving the alleged possession of GHB – a narcolepsy drug frequently used in recreational settings, including at dance clubs.
Detectives said they found evidence that Richins had communicated with a person who has previously been charged for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, KUTV reported. Richins reportedly texted this person to ask for some prescription pain medication for an investor who had a back injury, and she was given hydrocodone pills. About two weeks later, Kouri said her investor wanted something stronger and requested “some of the Michael Jackson stuff,” asking specifically for fentanyl.
KUTV reported that three days after Richins allegedly procured the fentanyl — she and her husband had a Valentine’s Day dinner in which he “became very ill,” a probable cause statement read.
“Eric believed that he had been poisoned,” the statement said. “Eric told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him.”
The charges come two months after Richins appeared on local television to promote “Are you with me?” a picture book she wrote to help children cope after the death of a loved one.
For a segment entitled “Good Things Utah,” Richins called her husband’s death unexpected and described how it sent her and her three boys reeling. For children, she said, grieving was about “making sure that their spirit is always alive in your home.”
“It’s – you know – explaining to my kid just because he’s not present here with us physically, doesn’t mean his presence isn’t here with us,” she told the anchors, who commended her for being an amazing mother.
KUTV reports the dedication section of the book reads: “Dedicated to my amazing husband and a wonderful father.”
Richins’ attorney, Skye Lazaro, declined to comment on the charges.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An adult entertainment industry group filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging a new Utah law that requires porn websites to implement age verification mechanisms to block minors from accessing sexually explicit materials.
The law, which took effect Wednesday, made Utah the second state to require adult websites to verify the age of those who want to view their pages — either through an independent contractor or digital ID. Lawmakers likened the requirement to those for alcohol or online gambling and argued that stronger protections were needed to shield kids from pornography, which is ubiquitous online.
The Free Speech Coalition — along with an erotica author and companies that manage adult websites and are party to the suit — argues that Utah’s new law unfairly discriminates against certain kinds of speech, violates the First Amendment rights of porn providers and intrudes on the privacy of individuals who want to view sexually explicit materials. The plaintiffs have asked a federal judge to bar enforcement of the law until their legal challenge is resolved.
They contend that the age verification law “imposes a content-based restriction on protected speech that requires narrow tailoring to serve a compelling state interest.”
It is currently illegal to show children pornography under federal law, however that law is rarely enforced.
Utah’s new law is the conservative state’s latest effort to crack down on access to pornography and dovetails with lawmakers’ other efforts to restrict how children use the internet, including social media sites. It comes less than a year after Louisiana enacted a similar law and as additional states consider such policies as filters or age verification for adult websites.
The Utah law builds off years of anti-porn efforts by the Republican-controlled Legislature, where a majority of lawmakers are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It comes seven years after Utah became the first state to declare pornography a public health crisis and two years after lawmakers passed a measure paving the way to require internet-capable devices be equipped with porn filters for children. Provisions of the law delay it from taking effect unless at least five other states pass similar measures.
The age verification law is facing strong pushback, including from one of the biggest porn sites, Pornhub, which disabled access to its site in Utah earlier this week.
The Free Speech Coalition has filed similar challenges before. In 2002, its case against a federal child pornography statute made landed before the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down provisions for overly interfering with free speech.
Grant Johnson was living in a 19-foot trailer in Utah when, in 1995, he was presented with the opportunity to purchase 40 acres of land in the state’s rugged wilderness.
Johnson was told the site was abandoned by a 1970s cult, but it was the perfect setting for him to achieve a long-held dream: transforming a boulder on the property into his home, using dynamite and his own two hands.
Johnson, who worked in Utah’s uranium mines and as a backcountry guide, was inspired by the Moab Desert’s famous “Hole N” The Rock” attraction, a family home carved out of a sandstone cliff.
Johnson’s property is located in southern Utah, about a four-hour drive north of the Grand Canyon and near the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, known for its cascading rock formations.
Johnson lives in the cave with his partner when they’re not renting it out, and they also run the property as a homestead and grow tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and corn, some of which they sell.
Johnson even raises horses, cows, pigs, and turkeys — and is planning to build them a cave barn of their own.
“It’s a lifetime art project,” he told Insider.
He carved the walls by hand using light and sound as guides
Johnson purchased dynamite from a contact through his mining work, who trusted him to use the equipment properly.
“That was in the 90s, so I was able to buy dynamite and just sign a paper. Now it’s a lot more difficult,” he said.
The first blast came in the winter of 1995. Johnson returned to the site for the next eight years to hollow out the space he wanted, eventually landing at around 5,700 square feet.
His first time stepping into the cave he created, he couldn’t help but be in awe.
“Nothing has been in this space since the dinosaurs,” he said. “It’s a 100-million-year-old rock.”
An instrument in Johnson’s music room, left, and Johnson on the 40-acre property. Grant Johnson
In 2005, Johnson employed a pro-builder friend to help finish the project. Together they poured the cement flooring and installed giant sheets of tempered glass that closed the cave off from the wilderness.
There are six openings in the boulder, all facing different directions, that had to be sealed before the space could be inhabitable. The last sheet was installed in January 2014, which is when Johnson moved into the space.
During that time, Johnson also molded the walls and doorways of the cave himself. He used a technique where he would drill parallel holes and tie them together with a perimeter cord, which cracked the rock in the desired shape.
“It’s a lot of acrobatics, which is truly difficult,” he told Insider.
During the sculpting process, he played with the light and sound of the space. During the winters, he’d sometimes sit in the space, during sunsets or especially during the equinox, and observe how the cave refracted the sunlight.
“I’d just sit down and if I noticed something that didn’t fit or that wasn’t curved right, I would get the drill,” he told Insider.
While he was carving, he’d also play a harmonica and adjust his plans based on the best pitches he could find. It’s paid off. Since moving in, Johnson has hosted many musicians, concerts, and even a group of Tibetan monks in the space.
“They did their throat singing and that sound has never left,” he said.
One of Johnson’s musician friends has even named different rooms after different keys. The living room is “E.”
You can rent the property on Airbnb for $1,000 per night
The cave now even welcomes visitors on Airbnb. The “west end” room, with its own staircase leading up to a private balcony, rents out for $350 per night. For $1,000, guests can rent out the entire three-bedroom property, and Johnson and his partner will vacate and stay in a cabin nearby.
A view onto Johnson’s remote property. Courtesy of Grant Johnson
Guests of the Airbnb are invited to climb on the cave outside and use a rope swing in front of the property. The listing also indicates that sense of adventure extends inside, where guests should be aware of “rugged rock stairs” connecting the rooms of the cave.
The cave runs off-grid and uses water to power things that are plugged into sockets, though the listing makes a point to note that hair dryers and pancake griddles, particularly, are too much for the hydro-electric system to handle. Also one major thing to note: There’s no WiFi.
“The desert holds special energy and this space resonates with it. This is where you come to disconnect from the rest of the world,” one Airbnb user wrote in a May 2022 review. “The comfort, cleanliness and beauty of it far exceeded any expectations those in our group had.”
The guest’s parting advice: “Drive a 4WD. Bring some extra water. Cherish your time there. Unwind. Go hike. Unplug and appreciate the space.”
Johnson said he loves to watch guests marvel at the unspoiled natural surroundings and hear how they feel more connected to nature by staying in the cave. He recommends every guest climbs out to the patio on the west end at night, and watch the still, desert night.
“You can’t ask for more dark sky. You can’t ask for more quiet,” he said.
Two empty homes overlooking a canyon slid off their foundations Saturday in Draper, Utah, prompting the evacuations of two adjacent residences, officials said Saturday.
In October, city building officials declared two clifftop homes “unfit for human habitation” due to “earth shifting that resulted in sliding and breaks in the homes’ foundations,” city officials said in a Facebook post.
The city had been following up with the developer for months on engineering studies regarding the stability of the area, officials said.
“With the snow pack melting and creating changes in conditions, other homes in the neighborhood will be evaluated for safety concerns,” said the Facebook post. “At this time, only the two adjacent homes are being evacuated.”
Draper officials closed two public trails following the slide.
“Everyone needs to avoid the area. Do not go to the neighborhood where the homes slid. Only residents allowed,” said city officials. “We are grateful that everyone is safe.”
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As a third grader in Utah, mandolin-playing math whiz Elle Palmer said aloud what she had only before sensed, telling a friend she planned to transfer schools the following year and hoped her new classmates would see her as a girl.
Several states northeast, Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier listened to punk rock in his room, longing to join the shirtless boys from the neighborhood playing beneath the South Dakota sunshine. It wasn’t until menstruation started, and the disconnect with his body grew, that he knew he was one of them.
Both kids’ realizations started their families on a yearslong path of doctors, therapists and other experts in transgender medicine.
Now teenagers, their journeys have hit a roadblock.
Republican lawmakers across the country are banning gender-affirming care for minors. Restrictions have gone into effect in eight states this year — including conservative Utah and South Dakota — and are slated to in at least nine more by next year.
Those who oppose gender-affirming care raise fears about the long-term effects treatments have on teens, argue research is limited and focus particularly on irreversible procedures such as genital surgery or mastectomies.
Yet those are rare. Doctors typically guide kids toward therapy or voice coaching long before medical intervention. At that point, puberty blockers, anti-androgens that block the effects of testosterone, and hormone treatments are far more common than surgery. They have been available in the United States for more than a decade and are standard treatments backed by major doctors’ organizations including the American Medical Association.
The new laws have parents scrambling to secure the care their kids need. They worry what will happen if they can’t get the medications they’ve been prescribed, especially as their kids start puberty and their bodies change in ways that can’t be reversed.
“My body’s basically this ticking time bomb, just sitting there waiting for it to go off,” said Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, now 13.
___
Elle remembers her first day at the school after she transferred. Before leaving, she came downstairs in rainbow sparkle-embroidered cowboy boots her mother worried would only spur bullies. Taunts from kids at Elle’s prior school drove her into depression so deep she had suicidal thoughts.
But on that first day, a boy told Elle he loved her boots. Some kids bullied her, but classmates and teachers were far more supportive than at her prior school. Elle discovered new passions in hip hop and drama class, and she settled into a new school and a truer version of herself. She started to see a therapist as her uncertainty about how she fit in the gender spectrum grew more pressing.
Elle came out as a transgender girl in fifth grade. Now in seventh, she planned to start hormone treatment this summer so potential side effects wouldn’t interfere with her life during the school year, especially her team’s extracurricular math competitions.
But then Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a gender-affirming care ban in January. In a compromise, the law let kids keep taking medications if they were already on them. So Elle’s mom rushed to get her treatment months earlier than planned, as did other parents.
The waitlist at one Utah clinic swelled to six months. Doctors were confronted with difficult decisions about who to get in for appointments.
Elle’s medication arrived in the mail just before Utah’s law went into effect. A small stick implanted in Elle’s forearm is slow-releasing hormone blockers to prevent the effects of male puberty from taking hold. Eventually she may be prescribed estrogen, and she and her parents will have to navigate the next steps, and whether they’ll find doctors to continue her care.
At least for now, they have a reprieve.
“It feels like we can breathe again now,” Cat Palmer said.
___
There’s no relief for Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier’s family — not yet.
When Asher began menstruating, he felt a terrifying disconnect between how his body was changing on the outside and how he felt inside.
Elizabeth began researching online to understand what was going on with her son, while Asher’s father, Brian, looked to doctors for expertise. With referrals from his longtime pediatrician, Asher met with therapists and doctors who helped explore his history, personality and feelings over his whole life.
Nearly two years ago, doctors prescribed puberty blockers and birth control to slow breast development, regulate menstruation and lower the pressure of his disconnect with his body.
He’s 13 now, and finds solace in music to ground him in a world of occasional bullying and constant mistaken pronouns. He practices Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” on guitar, plays trumpet in the school band and is rehearsing various singing roles for the Cinderella school musical. When he’s not thinking about testosterone to lower his voice or eventually getting top surgery, he looks forward to playing in the high school marching band next year.
Asher still struggles with moments of gender dysphoria. Friendships that were once strong fizzled after Asher came out as transgender. Parents have disinvited him from their houses out of fears he’s a “bad influence.”
But his parents have noticed his emotions stabilize through his treatment.
“From a parent’s view, I see him as being able to be himself authentically, which is wonderful for him,” Elizabeth said.
Now he and his parents worry they’ll have to start over.
In February, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning the medications and procedures that doctors have increasingly prescribed for transgender teens.
Asher’s current doctors in South Dakota won’t be able to prescribe his medications, so the family is looking for a new doctor in neighboring Minnesota, where the Democratic governor has signed an executive order explicitly protecting gender-affirming care for minors. They’re hoping to find a clinic close enough they can drive to appointments and don’t have to pay for hotel stays.
The planning has been time-consuming. Logistical questions to their current South Dakota doctors for referrals have gone unanswered. They want to beat whatever onslaught of patients from other states enacting similar bans will bring to providers in Minnesota, but also want to maintain as much normalcy for Asher as they can.
The sudden twists in Asher’s trajectory makes him question why his health care is of concern to politicians.
“Even though trans people don’t make up a big percent of the population doesn’t mean that we’re not part of it still,” Asher said.
___
The full consequences of the bans on care for minors aren’t yet clear.
Dr. Nikki Mihalopoulos, an adolescent medicine doctor in a Salt Lake City specialty clinic with transgender teens, worries the new laws will make families too scared to seek help and doctors too scared of losing their licenses to provide care.
In the middle are kids like Elle and Asher.
Multiple studies have shown that transgender youth are more likely to consider or attempt suicide and less at risk for depression and suicidal behaviors when able to access gender-affirming care.
Both sets of parents are trying to shelter their kids from the stress and anxiety caused by the recent changes in the laws.
After years of worrying about their kids’ safety and mental health, they still fear what could happen if they can’t find the drugs their kids have been prescribed.
“My kid being OK is my number one priority. I know what the suicide rate is. I do not want my child to be a statistic,” Cat Palmer said of Elle.
___
This story corrects the identification of the person in one photo to Elle Palmer.
Several states in the Southwest are bracing for potential flooding as rising temperatures this spring begin to melt snow from a historic season of snowfall. Elise Preston has more.
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The trial over a 2016 ski accident involving actor and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow wrapped up Thursday, with the jury ruling that she was not responsible for the collision at a Utah ski resort.
After a short deliberation, the jury concluded that plaintiff Terry Sanderson was entirely at fault for the collision, with the decision ultimately hinging on which party jurors believed was higher on the slopes when the crash occurred.
Sanderson, 76, sued Paltrow for $3.1 million after alleging that she crashed into him at the tony Deer Valley resort in Park City, Utah. After a judge dismissed his initial suit, he later refiled his complaint seeking more than $300,000. Paltrow, 50, countersued for a symbolic $1 and attorney fees.
In each taking the stand last week, Paltrow and Sanderson presented starkly different accounts of the collision and called a succession of medical experts and witnesses to buttress their claims. Paltrow’s ski instructor at the time of the incident, Deer Valley veteran Eric Christiansen, blamed Sanderson for the crash, which occurred on a beginner ski run.
“Gwyneth was making her turns very rhythmically,” he said under oath, while alleging that Sanderson “was making wide radius turns and taking up a large swath of the ski slope.”
For his part, Sanderson has accused Paltrow of barreling into him, breaking four of his ribs and causing a severe concussion whose symptoms lingered for years. Despite these dueling accounts, legal experts said the case will likely turn on something more tangible: Paltrow’s and Sanderson’s respective location on the mountain just before the crash occurred.
Uphill, downhill
Sanderson sued Paltrow in 2019, claiming she was skiing recklessly and crashed into him from above. Paltrow’s countersuit claimed Sanderson hit her from behind. The case hinges on which of the two parties acted in an unreasonable manner while on skis, attorneys told CBS MoneyWatch.
“When one skier hits another, the issue is negligence. Did they do something wrong?” said personal injury attorney Roger Kohn, of Kohn Rath Law.
Gwyneth Paltrow enters the courtroom after a lunch break in her trial, Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Park City, Utah, where she is accused in a lawsuit of crashing into a skier during a 2016 family ski vacation.
Jeff Swinger / AP
As far as conduct on the ski slopes go, it’s almost always the duty of the uphill skier to beware of the downhill skier. In other words, the downhill skier — the person who is further down the slope — has the right of way.
“The uphill skier has to watch out for the downhill skier. If you’re overtaking someone and hit them, chances are you are liable and at fault,” Kohn added.
According to the National Ski Areas Association’s responsibility code, which governs ski resorts in North America, “people ahead or downhill of you have the right of way. You must avoid them.”
Skiers must also “always stay in control” and be able to stop to avoid other people.
An animated recreation of the pair’s crash, which was introduced in court Monday, shows the skiers’ positions relative to one another from Christiansen’s perspective. It also depicted Paltrow lying on top of Sanderson following the collision.
Christiansen explained that Paltrow could only have ended up on top of Sanderson if she had been hit from behind.
A simulation of the ski collision between that took place on Deer Valley’s Bandana ski run in 2016, shows the aftermath of the collision between Ms. Paltrow and Ms. Sanderson.
Collisions happen
Ski collisions are not uncommon and when injuries result, lawyers sometimes get involved.
“Some lawyers based their whole career on ski accidents,” Bryn “Butch” Peterson, a veteran Colorado ski instructor, told CBS MoneyWatch. He added that he once saw a woman get hit by a skier who came “blasting out of a tree trail” in Vail, Colorado.
Terry Sanderson (left) arrives at court Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in Park City, Utah. The retired optometrist is suing actor Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 ski collision that took place at Deer Valley Resort.
Rick Bowmer / AP
But unlike that incident, most ski accidents aren’t caused by skier-skier or skier-snowboarder collisions; they happen when skiers hit a tree or other type of obstacle.
There were 57 reported fatal incidents during the 2021-2022 ski season, according to NSAA, most of which resulted from skiers hitting trees. Males represented 95% of all fatalities. There were an additional 54 reported “catastrophic” incidents during the same season.
Homeowners insurance
Most homeowners insurance policies also include general liability coverage that essentially follows a homeowner around even when they’re outside of their residence, including when they are on skis.
“It covers you if there’s something dangerous in your home or on your property and someone gets hurt and sues you, but it also follows you around if you’re at the grocery store and run a kid over with a shopping cart, and it covers ski collision claims,” said David Cutt, of Cutt, Kendell & Olson in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“So that’s what is going on here. In this case, if Paltrow has homeowners coverage, then that steps in and pays a settlement or a judgement unto the limits of the policy,” he said.
Typically, a lawyer would only get involved if the defendant is wealthy or has homeowners insurance, according to Kohn.
“If you sue someone who doesn’t have homeowners coverage, it’s a waste of time,” he said.
But, he added, if they have insurance, that policy will kick in, and the insurer will defend the claim as well as pay it.
It’s not always the case that one party is negligent in a two-person collision.
“But there is a clear case of liability if you can show the other skier was skiing too fast, acting improperly or should’ve seen the other skier,” he said.
He said, she said
Cutt said he’s tried dozens or more of these cases in Utah and the judgment always hinges on who the jury believes were the uphill and downhill skiers.
“In this trial, Sanderson says he was the downhill skier and she ran into him from behind, and she says exactly the opposite — that she was skiing along and he plowed into her from uphill,” Cutt said.
“So what it’s going to come down to is, the jury is going to listen to everybody about the collision itself and the aftermath and decide who they think is credible and who isn’t,” Cutt said before the jury reached its decision. “And the fact that it’s Gwyneth Paltrow is the big elephant in the room.”
A jury found actor Gwyneth Paltrow is not at fault for a 2016 ski collision in Utah. CBS News correspondent Carter Evans discusses the end of the closely watched trial.
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Gwyneth Paltrow was not responsible for a 2016 collision on a Utah ski slope, a jury ruled Thursday. Retired optometrist Terry Sanderson sued Paltrow over the crash and had been seeking “more than $300,000” in damages.
Paltrow countersued, seeking $1 in damages along with attorneys’ fees, which the jury awarded.
“I felt that acquiescing to a false claim compromised my integrity,” Paltrow said in a statement after the verdict was read. “I am pleased with the outcome and I appreciate all of the hard work of Judge Holmberg and the jury, and thank them for their thoughtfulness in handling this case.”
The eight-person jury throughout the trial heard testimony focused heavily on which skier was downhill at the time of the crash, because, according to a skier code of responsibility, the uphill skier is at fault in a collision.
After a relatively short deliberation, the jury concluded that Sanderson, who suffered four broken ribs in the crash, was 100% at fault for the collision.
“We are pleased with this unanimous outcome and appreciate the judge and jury’s thoughtful handling of the case,” Patlrow’s attorney, Steve Owen, said in a statement. “Gwyneth has a history of advocating for what she believes in – this situation was no different and she will continue to stand up for what is right.”
Both Sanderson and Paltrow testified during the trial, each telling considerably different stories.
Paltrow testified that at first, she thought the accident was a “sexual assault” or a “practical joke.” She said two skis slid right between her legs and her skis. She felt a body “press against my back,” she said, before the two skiers fell to the ground.
“He was groaning and grunting in a disturbing way,” Paltrow testified. She clarified that she didn’t think the collision was an assault but that was the thought that went through her head during that split second.
Sanderson, however, testified that he had heard “a blood-curdling scream,” and assumed another skier was out of control.
“I got hit in my back so hard, and right at my shoulder blades. It felt like it was perfectly centered, the fists and the poles were right there, at my shoulder blades. Serious, serious smack. I’ve never been hit that hard,” he testified, claiming that the collision sent him “flying.”
Only one other person claimed to have witnessed the crash, and evidence presented at trial showed that, at the time, that man thought Paltrow had crashed into Sanderson.
But Paltrow’s attorneys called a series of experts who used computer-animated renderings and physics demonstrations drawn on a whiteboard to show that Paltrow was downhill when the two collided.
The trial over a 2016 ski accident involving Gwyneth Paltrow is expected to wrap up Thursday, with attorneys presenting their closing arguments ahead of sending the case to the jury for deliberations. Beyond the spectacle of watching the Oscar-winning actress and businesswoman recount the incident, the decision could set a legal precedent affecting millions of skiers and snowboarders: Who is liable when collisions occur on the slopes?
Terry Sanderson, 76, sued Paltrow for $3.1 million after alleging that she crashed into him at the tony Deer Valley resort in Park City, Utah. After a judge dismissed his initial suit, he later refiled his complaint seeking more than $300,000. Paltrow, 50, countersued for a symbolic $1 and attorney fees.
In each taking the stand last week, Paltrow and Sanderson presented starkly different accounts of the collision and called a succession of medical experts and witnesses to buttress their claims. Paltrow’s ski instructor at the time of the incident, Deer Valley veteran Eric Christiansen, blamed Sanderson for the crash, which occurred on a beginner ski run.
“Gwyneth was making her turns very rhythmically,” he said under oath, while alleging that Sanderson “was making wide radius turns and taking up a large swath of the ski slope.”
For his part, Sanderson has accused Paltrow of barreling into him, breaking four of his ribs and causing a severe concussion whose symptoms lingered for years. Despite these dueling accounts, legal experts said the case will likely turn on something more tangible: Paltrow’s and Sanderson’s respective location on the mountain just before the crash occurred.
Uphill or downhill?
Sanderson sued Paltrow in 2019, claiming she was skiing recklessly and crashed into him from above. Paltrow’s countersuit claimed Sanderson hit her from behind. The case hinges on which of the two parties acted in an unreasonable manner while on skis, attorneys told CBS MoneyWatch.
“When one skier hits another, the issue is negligence. Did they do something wrong?” said personal injury attorney Roger Kohn, of Kohn Rath Law.
Gwyneth Paltrow enters the courtroom after a lunch break in her trial, Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Park City, Utah, where she is accused in a lawsuit of crashing into a skier during a 2016 family ski vacation.
Jeff Swinger / AP
As far as conduct on the ski slopes go, it’s almost always the duty of the uphill skier to beware of the downhill skier. In other words, the downhill skier — the person who is further down the slope — has the right of way.
“The uphill skier has to watch out for the downhill skier. If you’re overtaking someone and hit them, chances are you are liable and at fault,” Kohn added.
According to the National Ski Areas Association’s responsibility code, which governs ski resorts in North America, “people ahead or downhill of you have the right of way. You must avoid them.”
Skiers must also “always stay in control” and be able to stop to avoid other people.
An animated recreation of the pair’s crash, which was introduced in court Monday, shows the skiers’ positions relative to one another from Christiansen’s perspective. It also depicted Paltrow lying on top of Sanderson following the collision.
Christiansen explained that Paltrow could only have ended up on top of Sanderson if she had been hit from behind.
A simulation of the ski collision between that took place on Deer Valley’s Bandana ski run in 2016, shows the aftermath of the collision between Ms. Paltrow and Ms. Sanderson.
Collisions happen
Ski collisions are not uncommon and when injuries result, lawyers sometimes get involved.
“Some lawyers based their whole career on ski accidents,” Bryn “Butch” Peterson, a veteran Colorado ski instructor, told CBS MoneyWatch. He added that he once saw a woman get hit by a skier who came “blasting out of a tree trail” in Vail, Colorado.
Terry Sanderson (left) arrives at court Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in Park City, Utah. The retired optometrist is suing actor Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 ski collision that took place at Deer Valley Resort.
Rick Bowmer / AP
But unlike that incident, most ski accidents aren’t caused by skier-skier or skier-snowboarder collisions; they happen when skiers hit a tree or other type of obstacle.
There were 57 reported fatal incidents during the 2021-2022 ski season, according to NSAA, most of which resulted from skiers hitting trees. Males represented 95% of all fatalities. There were an additional 54 reported “catastrophic” incidents during the same season.
Homeowners insurance
Most homeowners insurance policies also include general liability coverage that essentially follows a homeowner around even when they’re outside of their residence, including when they are on skis.
“It covers you if there’s something dangerous in your home or on your property and someone gets hurt and sues you, but it also follows you around if you’re at the grocery store and run a kid over with a shopping cart, and it covers ski collision claims,” said David Cutt, of Cutt, Kendell & Olson in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“So that’s what is going on here. In this case, if Paltrow has homeowners coverage, then that steps in and pays a settlement or a judgement unto the limits of the policy,” he said.
Typically, a lawyer would only get involved if the defendant is wealthy or has homeowners insurance, according to Kohn.
“If you sue someone who doesn’t have homeowners coverage, it’s a waste of time,” he said.
But, he added, if they have insurance, that policy will kick in, and the insurer will defend the claim as well as pay it.
It’s not always the case that one party is negligent in a two-person collision.
“But there is a clear case of liability if you can show the other skier was skiing too fast, acting improperly or should’ve seen the other skier,” he said.
He said, she said
Cutt said he’s tried dozens or more of these cases in Utah and the judgment always hinges on who the jury believes were the uphill and downhill skiers.
“In this trial, Sanderson says he was the downhill skier and she ran into him from behind, and she says exactly the opposite — that she was skiing along and he plowed into her from uphill,” Cutt said.
“So what it’s going to come down to is, the jury is going to listen to everybody about the collision itself and the aftermath and decide who they think is credible and who isn’t,” Cutt said. “And the fact that it’s Gwyneth Paltrow is the big elephant in the room.”
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China’s global influence campaign has been surprisingly robust and successful in Utah, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.
The world’s most powerful communist country and its U.S.-based advocates have spent years building relationships with Utah officials.
Legislators in the deeply conservative and religious state have responded by delaying legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixing resolutions that conveyed displeasure with China’s actions and expressing support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.
The AP’s investigation relied on dozens of interviews with key players and the review of hundreds of pages of records, text messages and emails obtained through public records’ requests.
Beijing’s success in Utah shows “how pervasive and persistent China has been in trying to influence America,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in Utah.
“Utah is an important foothold,” he said. “If the Chinese can succeed in Salt Lake City, they can also make it in New York and elsewhere.”
Here are some key takeaways:
LEGISLATIVE AND PR VICTORIES
The AP review found that China and its advocates won frequent legislative and public relations victories in Utah.
Utah lawmakers recorded videos of themselves expressing words of encouragement for the citizens of Shanghai in early 2020, which experts said likely helped the Chinese Communist Party with its messaging.
The request came from a Chinese official as the government was scrambling to tamp down public fury at communist authorities for reprimanding a young doctor, who later died, over his warnings about the dangers posed by COVID-19.
Around the same time, Utah officials were thrilled when China’s authoritarian leader Xi Jinping sent a letter to fourth grade students in Utah. A Republican legislator said on the state Senate floor that he “couldn’t help but think how amazing it was” that Xi would take the time to write such a “remarkable” letter. Another GOP senator gushed on his conservative radio show that Xi’s letter “was so kind and so personal.”
The letter was heavily covered in Chinese state media, which quoted Utah students calling Xi a kind “grandpa” — a familiar trope in Chinese propaganda.
State lawmakers have frequently visited China, where they are often quoted in state-owned media in ways that support Beijing’s agenda.
“Utah is not like Washington D.C.,” then-Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, told the Chinese state media outlet in 2018 as the former president ratcheted up pressure on China over trade. “Utah is a friend of China, an old friend with a long history.”
FBI SCRUTINY
Utah Republican Sen. Jake Anderegg told the AP he was interviewed by the FBI after introducing a 2020 resolution expressing solidarity with China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. It won nearly unanimous approval. A similar resolution, proposed by a Chinese diplomat, was publicly rejected by Wisconsin’s Senate.
Anderegg said the language was provided to him by Dan Stephenson, the son of a former state senator and employee of a China-based consulting firm.
Stephenson and another Utah resident, Taowen Le, are among China’s most vocal advocates in Utah.
Both men have supported and sought to block resolutions, set up meetings between Utah lawmakers and Chinese officials, accompanied legislators on trips to China and provided advice on the best way to cultivate favor with Beijing, according to emails and interviews. Both have ties to what experts say are front groups for Beijing.
After embassy officials tried unsuccessfully last year to get staff for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to schedule a get-together with China’s ambassador to the U.S., Le sent the governor a personal plea to take such a meeting.
“I still remember and cherish what you told me at the New Year Party held at your home,” Le wrote in a letter adorned with pictures of him and Cox posing together. “You told me that you trusted me to be a good messenger and friendship builder between Utah and China.”
Both men said their advocacy on China-related issues were self directed and not at the Chinese government’s behest. Le told AP he has been interviewed twice over the years by the FBI.
The FBI declined to comment.
TAILORED APPROACH
Security experts say that China’s campaign is widespread and tailored to local communities. In Utah, the AP found, Beijing and pro-China advocates appealed to lawmakers’ affiliations with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, which is the state’s dominant religion and one that has long dreamed of expanding in China.
Le, who converted to the church decades ago, has quoted scripture from the Bible and the Book of Mormon in his emails and letters to lawmakers, and sprinkled in positive comments that Russell Nelson, the church’s president-prophet, has made about China.
PART OF BROADER TREND
Beijing’s success in Utah is part of a broader trend of targeting “sub-national” governments, like states and cities, experts say.
It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to engage in local diplomacy. U.S. officials and security experts have stressed that many Chinese language and cultural exchanges have no hidden agendas. However, they said, few nations have so aggressively courted local leaders across the globe in ways that raise national security concerns.
In its annual threat assessment released earlier this month, the U.S. intelligence community reported that China is “redoubling” its local influence campaign in the face of stiffening resistance at the national level. Beijing believes, the report said, that “local officials are more pliable than their federal counterparts.”
Authorities in other countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, have sounded similar alarms.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the AP that China “values its relationship with Utah” and any “words and deeds that stigmatize and smear these sub-national exchanges are driven by ulterior political purposes.”
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Suderman reported from Washington. AP writer Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China’s global campaign to win friends and influence policy has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the world’s most powerful communist country.
An investigation by The Associated Press has found that China and its U.S.-based advocates spent years building relationships with the state’s officials and lawmakers. Those efforts have paid dividends at home and abroad, the AP found: Lawmakers delayed legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixed resolutions that conveyed displeasure with its actions and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.
Its work in Utah is emblematic of a broader effort by Beijing to secure allies at the local level as its relations with the U.S. and its western allies have turned acrimonious. U.S. officials say local leaders are at risk of being manipulated by China and have deemed the influence campaign a threat to national security.
Beijing’s success in Utah shows “how pervasive and persistent China has been in trying to influence America,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in Utah.
“Utah is an important foothold,” he said. “If the Chinese can succeed in Salt Lake City, they can also make it in New York and elsewhere.”
Security experts say that China’s campaign is widespread and tailored to local communities. In Utah, the AP found, Beijing and pro-China advocates appealed to lawmakers’ affiliations with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, which is the state’s dominant religion and one that has long dreamed of expanding in China.
Beijing’s campaign in Utah has raised concerns among state and federal lawmakers and drawn the attention of the Justice Department.
A state legislator told the AP he was interviewed by the FBI after introducing a resolution in 2020 expressing solidarity with China early in the coronavirus pandemic. A Utah professor who has advocated for closer ties between Washington and Beijing told the AP he’s been questioned by the FBI twice. The FBI declined to comment.
‘DECEPTIVE AND COERCIVE’
Beijing’s interest in locally focused influence campaigns is not a secret. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said during a trip to the U.S. in 2015 that “without successful cooperation at the sub-national level it would be very difficult to achieve practical results for cooperation at the national level.”
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told the AP that China “values its relationship with Utah” and any “words and deeds that stigmatize and smear these sub-national exchanges are driven by ulterior political purposes.”
It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to engage in local diplomacy. U.S. officials and security experts have stressed that many Chinese language and cultural exchanges have no hidden agendas. However, they said, few nations have so aggressively courted local leaders in ways that raise national security concerns.
In its annual threat assessment released earlier this month, the U.S. intelligence community reported that China is “redoubling” its local influence campaigns in the face of stiffening resistance at the national level. Beijing believes, the report said, that “local officials are more pliable than their federal counterparts.”
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center in July warned state and local officials about “deceptive and coercive” Chinese influence operations. And FBI Director Christopher Wray last year accused China of seeking to “cultivate talent early—often state and local officials—to ensure that politicians at all levels of government will be ready to take a call and advocate on behalf of Beijing’s agenda.”
Those concerns have arisen amid escalating disputes between the U.S. and China over trade, human rights, the future of Taiwan and China’s tacit support for Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. Tensions worsened last month when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was discovered and shot down in U.S. airspace.
LEGISLATIVE AND PR VICTORIES
U.S. officials have provided scant details about which states and localities the Chinese government has targeted. The AP focused its investigation on Utah because China appears to have cultivated a significant number of allies in the state and its advocates are well-known to lawmakers.
Relying on dozens of interviews with key players and the review of hundreds of pages of records, text messages and emails obtained through public records’ requests, the AP found China won frequent legislative and public relations victories in Utah.
China-friendly lawmakers, for example, delayed action for a year to ban Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes at state universities, according to the legislation’s sponsor. The Chinese language and cultural programs have been described by U.S. national security officials as propaganda instruments. The University of Utah and Southern Utah University closed their institutes by last year.
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<p>AP correspondent Sam Metz reports that despite warnings that cultural exchanges could be aimed at manipulating lawmakers, China has been customizing its approach in Utah, forming ties with leaders affiliated with the Mormon church.</p>
In 2020, China scored an image-boosting coup when Xi sent a note to a class of Utah fourth-graders thanking them for cards they’d sent wishing him a happy Chinese New Year. He encouraged them to “become young ‘ambassadors’ for Sino-American friendship.”
Emails obtained by the AP show the Chinese Embassy and the students’ Chinese teacher coordinated the letter exchange, which resulted in heavy coverage by state-controlled media in China.
A Chinese state media outlet reported the Utah students jubilantly exclaimed: “Grandpa Xi really wrote back to me. He’s so cool!” Portraying China’s most authoritarian leader in decades as a kindly grandfather is a familiar trope in Chinese propaganda.
Xi’s letter garnered positive attention in Utah, too. A Republican legislator said on the state Senate floor that he “couldn’t help but think how amazing it was” that the Chinese leader took the time to write such a “remarkable” letter. Another GOP senator gushed on his conservative radio show that Xi’s letter “was so kind and so personal.”
Dakota Cary, a China expert at the security firm Krebs Stamos Group, said in making such comments Utah lawmakers are “essentially acting as mouthpieces for the Chinese Communist Party” and legitimizing their ideas and narratives.
“Statements like these are exactly what China’s goal is for influence campaigns,” he said.
SPY AGENCY INTEREST
China’s interest in Utah is not limited to its officials and advocates who are engaged in diplomacy, trade and education. U.S. officials have noted that China’s civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), has shown an interest in Utah, court records show.
In January, former graduate student Ji Chaoqun was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges related to spying for China. The Chicago student told an undercover agent he’d been tasked by his spy handlers “to meet people, some American friends.” He was baptized at a Latter-day Saints church and told the undercover agent he’d “been going to Utah more often lately” before his arrest, according to his Facebook page and court records.
Ron Hansen, a former U.S. intelligence official from Utah, pleaded guilty to trying to sell classified information to China. Hansen said China’s spy service had tasked him with assessing various U.S. politicians’ views towards China. The FBI found the names of Utah elected officials among sensitive files he stored on his laptop, court records show. Hansen was sentenced in 2019 to serve 10 years in federal prison.
Hansen was well known in Utah political circles and helped organize the first ever annual U.S.-China National Governors Forum, which was held in 2011 in Salt Lake City, according to court records and interviews. The U.S. State Department cancelled the forums in 2020 due to concerns about Chinese influence efforts.
‘UTAH IS NOT LIKE WASHINGTON D.C.’
The AP found groups of up to 25 Utah lawmakers routinely took trips to China every other year since 2007. Lawmakers have partially used campaign donations to pay for the trade missions and cultural exchanges, while relying on China and host organizations to pay for other expenses.
On the trips, they’ve forged relationships with government officials and were quoted in Chinese state-owned media in ways that support Beijing’s agenda.
“Utah is not like Washington D.C.,” then Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, told the Chinese state media outlet in 2018 as the former president ratcheted up pressure on Beijing over trade. “Utah is a friend of China, an old friend with a long history.”
In an interview last month with the AP, Hughes said the trips to China made him “bullish” about the country and prospects of improving trade. However, he said he now believes the visits were pretexts for Chinese officials to influence him and other lawmakers.
“It’s a trip not worth taking,” Hughes said.
Utah doesn’t require public officials to report in detail their foreign travel or personal finances, so it’s difficult to determine lawmaker’s financial ties to China. Some of Utah’s most pro-China legislators, however, have China-related personal business connections.
Sen. Curt Bramble told Courthouse News Service last year that his role as a part-time legislator and as a business consultant sometimes overlap and that he “had clients in China — a dozen at times — some of them on legislative tours, some on consulting.”
In an interview with AP, Bramble said none of his clients are based in China; they only do business there. He declined to name them.
Bramble, a Republican who represents a conservative district, also rejected fears of undue Chinese influence in Utah.
“China’s not going anywhere. China’s going to be a world force. They’re going to be a player for the foreseeable future and trying to understand what that implies for the United States or for the state of Utah and get a concept of that seems to be a valuable endeavor,” he said.
TIES FORGED BY TWO UTAH RESIDENTS
Many of the Utah-China ties have been forged by two state residents with links to the Chinese government or to organizations that experts say are alleged front groups for China, including its civilian spy agency, the AP found.
The two men advocated for and against resolutions, set up meetings between Utah lawmakers and Chinese officials, accompanied legislators on trips to China and provided advice on the best way to cultivate favor with Beijing, according to emails and interviews.
In reviewing the AP’s findings, legal experts said the men’s connections with Chinese officials suggest that they should register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA. The law generally requires anyone who works on behalf of a foreign entity to influence lawmakers or public perception, but its scope is the subject of significant debate and enforcement has been uneven.
“If I were representing either of these individuals, I would have significant concerns about FARA exposure,” said Joshua Ian Rosenstein, an attorney who handles such matters.
One of the men, Taowen Le, has championed China to religious and political leaders in Utah for decades. Le, a Chinese citizen, moved to Utah in the 1980s and has been a professor of information technology at Weber State University since 1998. Le converted in 1990 to the Mormon faith.
From 2003 through 2017, Le had another job — as a paid representative of China’s Liaoning provincial government. Provincial governments are largely controlled by Beijing and Liaoning has had a longstanding “sister” relationship with Utah.
Le’s advocacy continued after he said he left Liaoning’s payroll, emails and interviews show. He has frequently forwarded messages from Chinese government officials to Utah lawmakers and helped the Chinese Embassy set up meetings with state officials.
After embassy officials tried unsuccessfully last year to get staff for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to schedule a get-together with China’s ambassador to the U.S., Le sent the governor a personal plea to take the meeting.
“I still remember and cherish what you told me at the New Year Party held at your home,” Le wrote in a letter adorned with pictures of him and Cox posing together. “You told me that you trusted me to be a good messenger and friendship builder between Utah and China.”
State Senate President Stuart Adams turned to Le when Utah was scrambling to obtain large quantities of drugs that Adams thought could be used as potential treatment against the coronavirus in early 2020, emails and interviews show.
Le, who belongs to the same congregation as Adams, said in an email to another lawmaker that he was able to get the Chinese Embassy to assign two staffers to work “tirelessly” on the request until it was fulfilled.
RELIGIOUS SALES PITCH
A hallmark of Le’s approach is to utilize his religion in his pitches to lawmakers. He quoted scripture from the Bible and the Book of Mormon in his emails, text messages and letters, and sprinkled in positive comments that Russell Nelson, the church’s president-prophet, has made about China.
Chinese officials have tried to cultivate friendly ties with the church. When visiting Utah, China’s diplomats and officials often meet top church members as well as lawmakers, emails and other records show.
Expanding to China has been a top goal for the church, which plays a heavy role in Utah politics and the state’s overall identity. Many of the state’s residents lived abroad as missionaries, and several of Utah’s public schools have robust K-12 Chinese immersion programs.
While the church has historically been an outspoken advocate for religious freedom, Le sought to stop Utah lawmakers from supporting religious figures or groups discriminated against by the Chinese government.
When a Utah lawmaker sponsored a resolution in 2021 condemning China’s well-documented and brutal crackdown of its minority Muslim Uighurs, Le chastised the legislator in text messages and compared unflattering media coverage of the Chinese government to that of the church’s founder, Joseph Smith Jr.
“Pray to God and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit as you ponder about these issues instead of solely relying on those biased media reports,” Le said.
The resolution failed that year and a similar one introduced in January did not receive a hearing.
CHINA’S ‘ADVANTAGES’
Le has served as a board member of the China Overseas Friendship Association, which has ties to the United Front Work Department — a Chinese Communist Party organization the U.S. government says engages in covert and malign foreign influence operations.
A United Front publication profiled Le in 2020 after he attended a meeting in Beijing of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a prestigious advisory body controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Le told the AP he was interviewed by the FBI in 2007 and 2018 about his Chinese government ties. He said his advocacy has always been self-directed.
“I don’t consider myself a lobbyist because I’m not a lobbyist. I’m just someone who cherishes the relationship between the U.S. and China,” Le said in an interview in his Weber State office.
Adams, the Senate president, said he feels otherwise.
“I do believe he’s lobbying,” Adams said. “He advocates very hard on China.”
LAWMAKER’S SON TURNED CHINA ADVOCATE
Another Utah resident whom lawmakers said regularly has advocated better relations with China was Dan Stephenson, the son of a former state senator and employee of a China-based consulting firm.
Emails and other records show Stephenson advised the Utah senate president on how to make a good impression with a Chinese ambassador and assisted a Chinese province in its unsuccessful efforts to build a ceramics museum in Utah.
Stephenson has promoted China in Utah for several years and has boasted of being well connected with government officials there.
“I’ve heard more than once from the mouths of Chinese government officials that China is prioritizing their relationship with Utah,” Stephenson told lawmakers at a committee hearing. That testimony came shortly after Stephenson accompanied Republican state Sen. Jake Anderegg on a trip to Shanghai and Beijing that included meetings with officials at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A few months after that trip, Stephenson provided Anderegg with the draft language for a pro-China resolution the state senator introduced in 2020 expressing solidarity with China during the pandemic, Anderegg told the AP.
The resolution passed with near unanimous approval.
A Chinese diplomat’s efforts to win passage of a similar resolution in Wisconsin failed, with the state’s senate president publicly blasting it as a piece of propaganda.
Anderegg told the AP that he was interviewed by FBI agents seeking information about the Utah resolution’s origins.
“It seemed rather innocuous to me,” Anderegg said of his resolution. “But maybe it wasn’t.”
Stephenson said the FBI has not contacted him and no Chinese government official played a role in the resolution.
TIES TO ALLEGED FRONT GROUPS
Stephenson has links to Chinese groups allegedly active in covert foreign influence operations, documents show.
He is a partner in the Shanghai-based consulting firm Economic Bridge International. The company’s chief executive, William Wang, is a Chinese citizen and council member of the China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development, according to an online biography. The group is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front.
Stephenson, also once worked for the China Academy of Painting, which has been used by China’s Ministry of State Security as a front for meeting and covertly influencing elites and officials abroad, according to Alex Joske, the author of the recently published book “Spies and Lies: How China’s Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World.”
Stephenson said he worked only briefly — without pay — for the China Academy of Painting. He added he did not witness any spy agency involvement.
WORK ALIGNED WITH CHINESE GOVERNMENT’S DESIRES
Stephenson said he’s never taken any action at the direction of the Chinese government and never accepted compensation from it.
“I work to promote Utah’s economy, to help American companies succeed in China, and to encourage healthy people-to-people and commercial ties,” Stephenson said.
His work sometimes aligned with what Chinese government officials were seeking and in ways experts say likely helped the Chinese Communist Party’s messaging.
Stephenson urged Utah’s elected officials to make videos to air on Shanghai television to boost the spirits of that city’s residents early in 2020 as they battled COVID-19, according to emails obtained by AP.
“You cannot buy this type of positive publicity for Utah in China,” Stephenson said in an email pitching the videos.
The request originated with the Shanghai government, according to Stephenson’s email, and came as officials in China were scrambling to tamp down public fury at communist authorities for reprimanding a young doctor, who later died, over his repeated warnings about the disease’s dangers.
Many lawmakers recorded videos reading sample scripts Stephenson provided, and a compilation of those videos was uploaded to a Chinese social media website. The compilation ends with dozens of lawmakers in unison shouting “jiayou!”- a Chinese expression of encouragement — on the Utah House and Senate floors.
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Suderman reported from Washington. AP writer Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this story.
Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Children and teens in Utah would lose access to social media apps such as TikTok if they don’t have parental consent and face other restrictions under a first-in-the-nation law designed to shield young people from the addictive platforms.
Two laws signed by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox Thursday prohibit kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state and open the door to lawsuits on behalf of children claiming social media harmed them. Collectively, they seek to prevent children from being lured to apps by addictive features and from having ads promoted to them.
The companies are expected to sue before the laws take effect in March 2024.
The crusade against social media in Utah’s Republican-supermajority Legislature is the latest reflection of how politicians’ perceptions of technology companies has changed, including among typically pro-business Republicans.
Tech giants like Facebook and Google have enjoyed unbridled growth for over a decade, but amid concerns over user privacy, hate speech, misinformation and harmful effects on teens’ mental health, lawmakers have made Big Tech attacks a rallying cry on the campaign trail and begun trying to rein them in once in office. Utah’s law was signed on the same day TikTok’s CEO testified before Congress about, among other things, the platform’s effects on teenagers’ mental health.
But legislation has stalled on the federal level, pushing states to step in.
Outside of Utah, lawmakers in red states including Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Louisiana and blue states including New Jersey are advancing similar proposals. California, meanwhile, enacted a law last year requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.
The new Utah laws also require that parents be given access to their child’s accounts. They outline rules for people who want to sue over harms they claim the apps cause. If implemented, lawsuits against social media companies involving kids under 16 will shift the burden of proof and require social media companies show their products weren’t harmful — not the other way around.
Social media companies could have to design new features to comply with parts of the laws that prohibit promoting ads to minors and showing them in search results. Tech companies like TikTok, Snapchat and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, make most of their money by targeting advertising to their users.
The wave of legislation and its focus on age verification has garnered pushback from technology companies as well as digital privacy groups known for blasting their data collection practices.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this month demanded Cox veto the Utah legislation, saying time limits and age verification would infringe on teens’ rights to free speech and privacy. Moreover, verifying every users’ age would empower social media platforms with more data, like the government-issued identification required, they said.
If the law is implemented, the digital privacy advocacy group said in a statement, “the majority of young Utahns will find themselves effectively locked out of much of the web.”
Tech industry lobbyists decried the laws as unconstitutional, saying they infringe on people’s right to exercise the First Amendment online.
“Utah will soon require online services to collect sensitive information about teens and families, not only to verify ages, but to verify parental relationships, like government-issued IDs and birth certificates, putting their private data at risk of breach,” said Nicole Saad Bembridge, an associate director at NetChoice, a tech lobby group.
What’s not clear in Utah’s new law and those under consideration elsewhere is how states plan to enforce the new regulations. Companies are already prohibited from collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. To comply, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms — but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent.
Cox said studies have shown that time spent on social media leads to “poor mental health outcomes” for children.
“We remain very optimistic that we will be able to pass not just here in the state of Utah but across the country legislation that significantly changes the relationship of our children with these very destructive social media apps,” he said.
The set of laws won support from parents groups and child advocates, who generally welcomed them, with some caveats. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on kids and technology, hailed the effort to rein in social media’s addictive features and set rules for litigation, with its CEO saying it “adds momentum for other states to hold social media companies accountable to ensure kids across the country are protected online.”
However, Jim Steyer, the CEO and founder of Common Sense, said giving parents access to children’s social media posts would “deprive kids of the online privacy protections we advocate for.” Age verification and parental consent may hamper kids who want to create accounts on certain platforms, but does little to stop companies from harvesting their data once they’re on, Steyer said.
The laws are the latest effort from Utah lawmakers focused on the fragility of children in the digital age. Two years ago, Cox signed legislation that called on tech companies to automatically block porn on cellphones and tablets sold in the state, after arguments about the dangers it posed to children found resonance among Utah lawmakers, the majority of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Amid concerns about enforcement, lawmakers ultimately revised that legislation to prevent it from taking effect unless five other states passed similar laws.
The regulations come as parents and lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about kids and teenagers’ social media use and how platforms like TikTok, Instagram and others are affecting young people’s mental health. The dangers of social media to children is also emerging as a focus for trial lawyers, with addiction lawsuits being filed thorughout the country.
Utah’s sweeping social media legislation passed this week is an ambitious attempt to shield children and teens from the ill effects of social media and empower parents to decide whether their kids should be using apps like TikTok or Instagram.
What’s not clear is if — and how — the new rules can be enforced and whether they will create unintended consequences for kids and teens already coping with a mental health crisis. And while parental rights are a central theme of Utah’s new laws, experts point out that the rights of parents and the best interests of children are not always aligned.
For instance, allowing parents to read their kids’ private messages may be harmful to some children, and age verification requirements could give tech companies access to kids’ personal information, including biometric data, if they use tools such as facial recognition to check ages.
“Children may be put at increased risk if these laws are enforced in such a way that they’re not allowed to some privacy, if they are not allowed some ability for freedom of speech or autonomy,” said Kris Perry, executive director of the nonprofit Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development.
The laws, which will go into effect in a year, impose a digital curfew on people under 18, require minors to get parental consent to sign up for social media apps and force companies to verify the ages of all their Utah users. They also require tech companies to give parents access to their kids’ accounts and private messages, which has raised alarms for child advocates who say this could further harm children’s mental health by depriving them of their right to privacy. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ kids whose parents are not accepting of their identity.
The rules could drastically transform how people in this conservative state access social media and the internet, and if successful, serve as a model for other states to enact similar legislation. But even if the laws clear the inevitable lawsuits from tech giants, it’s not clear how Utah will be able to enforce them.
Take age verification, for instance. Various measures exist that can verify a person’s age online. Someone could upload a government ID, consent to the use facial recognition software to prove they are the age they say they are.
“Some of these verification measures are wonderful, but then also require the collection of sensitive data. And those can pose new risks, especially for marginalized youth,” Perry said. “And it also puts a new kind of burden on parents to monitor their children. These things seem simple and straightforward on their face, but in reality, there are new risks that may emerge in terms of that that collection of additional data on children.”
Just as teens have managed to obtain fake IDs to drink, they are also savvy at skirting online age regulations.
“In Southeast Asia they’ve been trying this for years, for decades, and kids always get around it,” said Gaia Bernstein, author of “Unwired,” a book on how to fight technology addiction.
The problem, she said, is that the Utah rules don’t require social networks to prevent kids from going online. Instead, they are making the parents responsible.
“I think that’s going to be the weak link in the whole thing, because kids drive their parents insane,” Bernstein said.
There is no precedent in the United States for such drastic regulation of social media, although several states have similar rules in the works.
On the federal level, companies are already prohibited from collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. For this reason, social media platforms already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their sites — but children can easily skirt the rules, both with and without their parents’ consent.
Perry suggests that instead of age verification, there are steps tech companies could take to make their platforms less harmful, less addictive, across the board. For instance, Instagram and TikTok could slow down all users’ ability to mindlessly scroll on their platforms for hours on end.
The laws are the latest effort from Utah lawmakers focused on children and the information they can access online. Two years ago, Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation that called on tech companies to automatically block porn on cell phones and tablets sold, citing the dangers it posed to children. Amid concerns about enforcement, lawmakers in the deeply religious state revised the bill to prevent it from taking effect unless five other states passed similar laws — which has not happened.
Still, child development experts are generally hopeful about the growing push to regulate social media and its effects on children.
“Children have specific developmental needs, and we want to protect them at the same time that we’re trying to push back on Big Tech,” Perry said. “It’s a two-part effort. You have to really put your arm around the kids while you’re pushing Big Tech away.”
Gwyneth Paltrow, the award-winning actress facing a civil trial for a 2016 skiing crash at a Utah resort, testified that she “froze” when a man allegedly skied directly into her back, causing them to collapse to the ground as their skis tangled together.
Paltrow testified on Friday that the collision forced her legs apart as she felt someone from behind her.
“I was skiing, and two skis came between my skis, forcing my legs apart. And then there was a body pressing against me. And there was a very strange grunting noise. So, my brain was trying to make sense of what was happening,” Paltrow testified. “I froze when he slid between my skis. I absolutely froze.”
“I was confused at first, and I didn’t know exactly what was happening. It’s a very strange thing to happen on the ski slope,” Paltrow continued.
Paltrow and the man both fell slowly and were nearly spooning once they hit the ground, “and I moved away quickly,” Paltrow said previously in a deposition read during the trial Friday in Park City, Utah.
Friday marked the fourth day in the skiing crash case against Paltrow, who is being sued by Terry Sanderson, a 76-year-old retired optometrist – the man she maintains crashed into her in February 2016 at Deer Valley Resort in Park City.
Meanwhile, Sanderson claims that Paltrow crashed into him and caused him lasting injuries and brain damage while they were both skiing on a beginner’s run. Sanderson also accuses Paltrow and her ski instructor of skiing away after the incident without getting him medical care.
Kristin A. VanOrman, an attorney representing Sanderson, questioned Paltrow for nearly two hours Friday. At one point, VanOrman asked whether Paltrow can demonstrate the crash with her in at the courtroom, but the judge declined that request.
Instead, VanOrman walked around the courtroom trying to reenact where the skis were and how Paltrow and Sanderson were positioned, based on how Paltrow described the incident.
VanOrman asked Paltrow whether the actress had been present when paperwork about the crash was filled out, and Paltrow said she was not but that her ski instructor stayed with Sanderson and made sure he was OK.
Later, Paltrow said she stayed on the mountain “long enough for him to say that he was OK” and to stand up, saying it was “absolutely not” a hit-and-run.
Paltrow didn’t seek medical treatment after that crash, she said, but she pointed out her knee felt like it had been “over-stretched” and her “back hurt” and decided to go for a massage later that day.
Sanderson had initially sued Paltrow for $3.1 million dollars, later amending his complaint to seek more than $300,000 in damages, according to court documents.
Paltrow has filed a counter lawsuit in which she is seeking $1 in damages plus attorneys’ fees.
Court is slated to resume Monday.
VanOrman pressed Paltrow more than once about whether the actress had sought information about Sanderson’s medical condition following the crash.
“I think you have to keep in mind when you’re the victim of a crash, right, your psychology is not necessarily thinking about the person who perpetrated it,” Paltrow testified.
Paltrow also did not ask anyone at the resort about Sanderson “because at the time I did not know that he had sustained injuries like that. I thought it was very minor on the day,” she said.
Throughout the testimony, Paltrow maintained that Sanderson skied into her and that she did not cause the crash.
“Mr. Sanderson categorically hit me on that ski slope, and that is the truth,” adding that she feels sympathetic for him.
“I feel very sorry for him. It seems like he’s had a very difficult life, but I did not cause the accident so I cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently happened to him,” she testified.
The collision happened on the first day of a family trip that Paltrow, her now-husband Brad Falchuk and both of their children were attending. It was the first time Paltrow and her then-boyfriend were introducing their children to each other to gauge whether they had a future as a “blended family.”
According to Paltrow’s countersuit, she “was enjoying skiing with her family on vacation in Utah, when Plaintiff – who was uphill from Ms. Paltrow – plowed into her back. She sustained a full ‘body blow.’ Ms. Paltrow was angry with Plaintiff, and said so. Plaintiff apologized. She was shaken and upset, and quit skiing for the day even though it was still morning.”
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow took the stand in a Utah courtroom to testify in a civil trial over a 2016 skiing accident over claims she crashed into a retired optometrist at a Utah ski resort. The optometrist is seeking $300,000, while Paltrow is countersuing for a symbolic $1. Randy Kessler, a trial law professor at Emory University, joined CBS News to discuss the case.
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