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 ladies at his Grateful Lifeless-themed bars between 2020 and 2024, in addition to drugging one other man and a girl throughout that point interval.
“This isn’t about character or existence or selections the victims might have made,” stated Bree Beasley, chief trial deputy on the Denver District Legal professional’s workplace, and a sexual violence specialist, in her opening statements. “It’s not a reminiscence check … (and) it’s completely not some sort of gigantic conspiracy towards Jay Bianchi. So don’t get distracted. Deal with 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 rely 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, happened following a Halloween celebration at Sancho’s Damaged Arrow, previously at 741 E. Colfax Ave., in 2020. Utter’s buddy 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.
JHB is figuring out Utter and Heringer as a result of they beforehand agreed to talk to the newspaper about their experiences.
One other girl recognized through the proceedings alleged she was sexually assaulted by Bianchi in March 2024, and a person and a girl individually stated 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 stated.
Bianchi, wearing a black jacket with a maroon tie, sat expressionless most of Tuesday as he watched every witness and speaker, often 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 JHB. His previous convictions and arrests weren’t talked about on Tuesday.
The trial, which might probably final by mid-November, started Friday with a jury and proof evaluation that ran by Monday. On Tuesday, the primary witnesses have been known 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 workforce on Tuesday vigorously maintained his innocence. In her opening statements, deputy state public defender Megan Jungsun Lee previewed a method that may solid the prosecutor’s witnesses and consultants as tainted by misinformation and rumors on social media, in addition to information stories in JHB and Westword.
“You’ll hear that in this time … that gossip, hypothesis assumptions have been repeated repeatedly,” Lee stated throughout opening statements. She additionally solid doubt on the years-long, on-and-off Denver Police Division investigation into the assaults, which she stated had been compromised by the gossip-driven narrative and by information stories.
“Ms. Utter was alert,” Lee stated 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 stated.
That’s the place Utter stated the assault happened. Nevertheless, there was no proof she was unable to make her personal selections regardless of consuming alcohol, cocaine and hashish that evening, Lee stated.
“(Bianchi) didn’t hand her a drink, contact her drink, supply her meals or supply her medicine,” Lee added. “There isn’t any proof he precipitated her any sort of worry or made any menace. She was totally able to exercising her personal free will.”
The District Legal professional’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 happened.
In March 2024, a girl 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 consuming 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 JHB. Native musicians who felt they’d been mistreated by Bianchi rallied through the protest.
“We’ll sit right here so long as it takes,” Beasley stated, 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 numerous firsthand particulars of the investigation.
Bianchi has been a fixture of Colorado’s jam-band scene for greater than twenty years, beforehand proudly owning and reserving bands at “Don Quixote”-inspired venues together with Quixote’s True Blue, Dulcinea’s one centesimal Monkey, Be on Key Psychedelic Ripple, and Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom.
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