Denver prosecutors on Tuesday opened their long-awaited felony case towards former enterprise proprietor Jay Bianchi, who’s accused of drugging and sexually assaulting three girls at his Grateful Lifeless-themed bars between 2020 and 2024, in addition to drugging one other man and a lady throughout that point interval.
“This isn’t about character or existence or selections the victims could have made,” mentioned Bree Beasley, chief trial deputy on the Denver District Lawyer’s workplace, and a sexual violence specialist, in her opening statements. “It’s not a reminiscence take a look at … (and) it’s completely not some sort of gigantic conspiracy towards Jay Bianchi. So don’t get distracted. Give attention to the proof.”
Bianchi, 56, was arrested in April 2024 and charged with three counts of sexual assault courting to Oct. 31, 2020, within the 700 block of East Colfax Avenue; one depend of illegal sexual contact, a misdemeanor, on Nov. 1, 2020, within the 900 block of West First Avenue; and three counts of felony sexual assault on April 7, 2024, in the identical block of West First Avenue.
He has pleaded not responsible on all counts.
The primary sexual assault, alleged by Bonnie Utter, occurred following a Halloween celebration at Sancho’s Damaged Arrow, previously at 741 E. Colfax Ave., in 2020. Utter’s good friend Kylie Heringer, who labored as a sound engineer for Bianchi, additionally alleged that Bianchi groped her the subsequent day in his workplace at So Many Roads Brewery, previously at 918 W. First Ave., and that Bianchi tried to discredit the ladies with character assassination and coercion. Each of his companies have since closed.
JS is figuring out Utter and Heringer as a result of they beforehand agreed to talk to the newspaper about their experiences.
One other lady recognized throughout the proceedings alleged she was sexually assaulted by Bianchi in March 2024, and a person and a lady individually mentioned that Bianchi drugged them — within the man’s case, for making an attempt to intervene in a battle at Sancho’s. All will testify as a part of the case, Beasley mentioned.
Bianchi, wearing a black jacket with a maroon tie, sat expressionless most of Tuesday as he watched every witness and speaker, sometimes taking notes. His case has been delayed a number of occasions as extra folks have come ahead to make claims towards him. Bianchi, who has a number of previous arrests and convictions for drug fees and assault, has denied these allegations in a number of interviews with JS. His previous convictions and arrests weren’t talked about on Tuesday.
The trial, which may probably final by way of mid-November, started Friday with a jury and proof evaluate that ran by way of Monday. On Tuesday, the primary witnesses had been referred to as: a pair of police detectives and a former nurse from Denver Well being who performed a sexual-assault examination of Utter after she reported it on Nov. 1, 2020.
Bianchi’s protection crew on Tuesday vigorously maintained his innocence. In her opening statements, deputy state public defender Megan Jungsun Lee previewed a technique that can forged the prosecutor’s witnesses and consultants as tainted by misinformation and rumors on social media, in addition to information experiences in JS and Westword.
“You’ll hear that in this time … that gossip, hypothesis assumptions had been repeated repeatedly,” Lee mentioned throughout opening statements. She additionally forged doubt on the years-long, on-and-off Denver Police Division investigation into the assaults, which she mentioned had been compromised by the gossip-driven narrative and by information experiences.
“Ms. Utter was alert,” Lee mentioned of the occasions earlier than the alleged assault on Nov. 1, 2020, noting that protection witnesses noticed Bianchi and Utter “cuddled up.” The pair was laughing and holding fingers as they went downstairs to the basement at Sancho’s that evening, Lee mentioned.
That’s the place Utter mentioned the assault occurred. Nonetheless, there was no proof she was unable to make her personal selections regardless of consuming alcohol, cocaine and hashish that evening, Lee mentioned.
“(Bianchi) didn’t hand her a drink, contact her drink, supply her meals or supply her medicine,” Lee added. “There is no such thing as a proof he brought on her any sort of concern or made any risk. She was totally able to exercising her personal free will.”
The District Lawyer’s Workplace spent a lot of Tuesday afternoon establishing the bodily structure of So Many Roads with dozens of on-site pictures, which included an unidentified substance in a baggie in Bianchi’s workplace, the place Heringer’s assault allegedly occurred.
In March 2024, a lady alleged she was raped by Bianchi, additionally at So Many Roads Brewery, which was co-owned by Tyler Bishop. That bar closed the subsequent month, having been the topic of Denver Police Division stings for underage ingesting and drug gross sales. Bianchi had additionally been the topic of protests outdoors the brewery in June 2021, after Utter and Heringer got here ahead to debate their experiences, first on social media and later with JS. Native musicians who felt that they had been mistreated by Bianchi rallied throughout the protest.
“We are going to sit right here so long as it takes,” Beasley mentioned, noting that the DA’s workplace will name a mixture of eyewitnesses, detectives and consultants who can touch upon toxicology and crime lab outcomes, sexual assault, consent, how reminiscence works, and varied firsthand particulars of the investigation.
Bianchi has been a fixture of Colorado’s jam-band scene for greater than 20 years, beforehand proudly owning and reserving bands at “Don Quixote”-inspired venues together with Quixote’s True Blue, Dulcinea’s a centesimal Monkey, Be on Key Psychedelic Ripple, and Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom.
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