Attorney Stephen Owens, left, and his client Gwyneth Paltrow, in a Park City, Utah, courtroom on March 29, 2023. (Law&Crime Network)
Gwyneth Paltrow’s lead attorney raised concerns about yet another camera focused on his award-winning client on Wednesday afternoon in the Utah courtroom where she is standing trial on a negligence claim over a 2016 ski crash with a retired eye doctor.
Time was of the essence late in the day as each side tried to argue to Judge Kent Holmberg why they should be entitled to more time to plead their case in front of Park City jurors.
Amid one such recess addressing those issues, defense attorney Stephen Owens said he had “one Court TV objection to make.”
The judge wanted to deal with the complaint “at the end of the day” but acceded to the attorney and let him raise the issue as he rose from his chair, demanding to deal with the concern immediately.
“Alright,” Holmberg said.
“We’ve had two decorum order violations,” Owens said. “I’m reporting a third right now.”
Confusion ensued as the judge and the attorney sought to clarify which media outlet was responsible for the alleged breach.
“Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell, your honor,” Owens said.
The judge replied: “If it’s a still photographer, it’s not Court TV.”
The attorney said it wasn’t a still photographer and alleged that “two individual reports” had been made about the decorum issue.
“There is a direct camera on my client’s face in the last – for the last bit of testimony,” Owens said. “I wasn’t speaking, and it was just focused on her. Direct violation of how the court has interpreted the decorum order.”
Holmberg asked the attorney for a picture of the claimed offense, but Paltrow’s side did not have documentary proof at the ready, a member of her team said, off-camera. Owens asked to try and get them.
“Okay, so that’s noted,” the judge said. “And I’m going to ask Court TV to – if they need any clarification on the decorum order to ask for it – but, otherwise, they should only be going on the lectern and on the witness. Unless an objection is made at counsel table, and then they can show counsel table.”
This isn’t the first time Paltrow’s legal team has complained about a camera in the courtroom.
On the second day of the trial, Owens raised concerns about “a new camera pointed directly at my client.”
The attorney and the judge determined that the initial offending camera was from the Associated Press.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Robert Sykes, later complained that “eight or 10” objections about the decorum order had been raised by Paltrow’s side and asked if they could be credited that time. The judge declined to do so, he said, because time is only taken away from each side when jurors are present, and decorum complaints have only been made during recesses.
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