The victim of a beating on Main Street during the Sundance Film Festival has filed a lawsuit against the man convicted in the attack and another man prosecutors say was involved in the confrontation, charging that the episode was “outrageous” and “intolerable.”
Attorneys for Ryan Bilbrey name John Cook and Kyle Erickson in the lawsuit, leveling five claims against each of them, including that they assaulted Bilbrey and they inflicted emotional distress, a term attorneys frequently use to broadly describe the toll taken on a person’s psyche.
The lawsuit seeks damages, attorney fees and court costs, but it does not list a dollar figure. During his testimony at Cook’s recent criminal trial, Bilbrey said his medical bills have reached approximately $120,000, including $13,000 he has paid himself.
He said from the witness stand he has undergone three surgeries and doctors have told him he will likely need at least two more. Bilbrey suffered damage to his cheek bones, eye sockets and mouth, among other injuries, in the attack, he has testified. Pictures taken of him soon afterward show he suffered extensive facial injuries.
In an interview, Bilbrey said he hopes the lawsuit is quickly resolved. The attack left him in a “pretty poor financial situation.” Bilbrey, a litigation consultant who lives in Los Angeles, said he had left a job prior to the attack and could not continue his job search for three months after the Jan. 18 attack.
The attack has caused “massive pain and suffering,” he said.
The lawsuit briefly describes the confrontation, claiming that Bilbrey was walking down Main Street when Erickson and Cook attacked. It says Erickson grabbed Bilbrey, put him in a headlock, threw him to the ground and kicked him in the face. Cook then “viciously punched, kicked and stomped” Bilbrey in the head, the lawsuit says.
“This was a well-witnessed, unprovoked attack on Mr. Bilbrey,” Brad Bearnson, Bilbrey’s attorney, said in an interview, calling Cook and Erickson “cohorts in their assault against Mr. Bilbrey.”
The 12-page lawsuit, filed in Third District Court at Silver Summit, does not describe the attack in the same detail as the testimony during Cook’s trial.
In his testimony, Bilbrey recounted that he and the people he was with came across a man lying down on the sidewalk on upper Main Street. Bilbrey said he told him he looked funny and words were exchanged between Bilbrey and the man, believed by investigators to be Erickson.
The encounter escalated quickly, and Bilbrey and Erickson fought, Bilbrey testified. Cook then attacked Bilbrey after he had fallen while fighting Erickson.
A jury found Cook guilty of assault. Sentencing is scheduled Nov. 30. Prosecutors have also charged Erickson. His next court date is Nov. 4.
In a two-sentence response to the lawsuit, filed on the day the criminal trial opened, Cook said he disagrees with key assertions made by Bilbrey’s side.
“This is not what took place the night of January 18, 2009,” Cook said in the response.
A trial date has not been set in the lawsuit.