Ryan Bilbrey, the man who was severely beaten on Main Street during the Sundance Film Festival, pointed at John Cook as one of the men involved in the confrontation during testimony at Cook’s trial on Wednesday.
But Bilbrey told the courtroom he does not recall the moments when prosecutors claim Cook kicked him in the face, causing terrible injuries. He said he was “very dazed,” “confused” and bleeding when he came to.
Bilbrey, one of the crucial witnesses for the prosecution, described how the evening unfolded, starting with beers at the Wasatch Brew Pub. He and the three others he was with left the Brew Pub at just after 1 a.m. Jan. 18 walking downhill on Main Street as they were deciding whether to walk or take a taxi to the condominium in the Park City Mountain Resort area where they were staying.
He said they encountered a man lying down on the sidewalk outside the Star Bar, and Bilbrey said he told the person he looked funny in that position. Drawing on a whiteboard, Bilbrey showed a diagram of that section of Main Street, saying the person and another man began following him and the others down the street.
“I didn’t stop. We were walking away,” Bilbrey said, indicating that profanities were being spewed at him and his wife.
The other man threw a piece of chewed gum at Bilbrey’s wife, Bilbrey, acknowledging that he was likely cursing, demanded he back off. The other man, though, threw the lid of a trash can at the wife’s head, missing, Bilbrey said, and spit at the wife’s back.
Bilbrey said he felt threatened by then and confronted the other man. A scuffle started, he said, and they were “grappling” and “shoving back and forth.” Bilbrey said he decided to not try to punch the man.
But Bilbrey fell down on his back and took a defensive position, he said. Bilbrey said he was not injured by that time. He does not recall what occurred after taking the defensive position. Prosecutors contend Cook then attacked Bilbrey.
An ambulance took him to the University of Utah Hospital.
Bilbrey said he has required three surgeries to repair fractures to his cheek bones and have plates put into his eye sockets, among other work the surgeons performed. He said he required braces as well. He said he will likely require two more surgeries. The surgeries have cost approximately $120,000, and he has paid $13,000 in medical bills on his own.
Paul Christensen, who is leading the prosecution, showed the jury plates and screws that had been implanted in Bilbrey and already had been removed.
In a short cross-examination, Cook’s attorney, Shelden Carter, inquired about when others entered the fray, Cook’s actions while Bilbrey was engaged with the other man and what he recalled from the time he was on his back.
The case is expected to be handed to the jury on Friday.
Cook faces a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault, which carries a potential jail sentence of between 1 and 15 years and a $10,000 fine upon conviction.