Jury finds Grateful Dead bar owner Jay Bianchi guilty on 5 counts of sexual assault

A jury on Thursday uncovered former Grateful Dead bar owner and jam-band scene fixture Jay Bianchi guilty for sexually assaulting three women between and following a nearly month-long trial that included dozens of observers and hundreds of pieces of evidence The -member jury took days after the trial s Nov closing arguments to convict Bianchi on five of his charges The jury did not come to a verdict on the other five charges which also involved drugging and sexual assault charges covering a four-year period Bianchi was located guilty five felony counts of sexual assault classified as no consent victim incapable and victim helpless The jury did not however come an agreement on drugging charges filed under assault in the second degree and unlawful administration of drugs which were related to two separate casualties as well as a submission against will charge related to one of the sexual assault sufferers Bianchi dressed in a dark suit and tie looked at the ground during the reading of the verdict for the first time since the trial began Bianchi was arrested in April on suspicion of six counts of sexual assault and one count of unlawful sexual contact related to three separate cases He had earlier been accused of sexual assault by two women who shared casualties statements with the Colorado Musicians Union and spoke on the record to The Denver Post in about their experiences However a hearing for Bianchi was postponed in the fall of and the charges were amended as the Denver Police Department urged more probable casualties to come forward Bianchi was eventually charged with offenses and pleaded not guilty The trial s opening arguments began on Oct An additional trial may be coming in January for the other five charges Second Judicial District Judge Andrew Luxen noted Thursday having declared a mistrial or inconclusive results on those charges during the verdict reading The trial is required to take place within days and could begin as early as Jan Luxen mentioned from the bench District Attorneys declined to finalize a date until after Bianchi is sentenced on his five convictions Bianchi did not testify during his trial but videos of his interviews with police officers were played for jurors in the jury room Prosecutors sought to demonstrate a years-long pattern of abuse that centered on four women and one man with criminal charges related to three sexual assaults and two drugging incidents starting in What we do know in this occurrence is that Mr Bianchi had no right to touch them the way he touched them prosecutor Bree Beasley a senior Denver Deputy District Attorney and a sexual violence specialist explained in closing arguments on Nov Bianchi s unit led by residents defenders Victoria Eidsmo and Megan Jungsun Lee raised numerous objections throughout the trial saying prosecutors used emotionally charged language to sway the jury s opinion such as calling Bianchi a rapist during closing arguments They also criticized the years-long stop-start police analysis and the women s motivations for making the assertions Luxen hurriedly overruled the bulk of the defense s objections including four that were raised during the final minutes of the trial Gossip assumptions and rumors are what got us here Eidsmo argued during closing arguments saying that all of Bianchi s sexual experiences had been consensual She attacked news media reports as tainting the casualties memories and picked apart the casualties timelines and motivations when they took the witness stand at Denver s Lindsay-Flanigan Courthouse Jurors heard from observers in all The verdict is a milestone of sorts for the city s jam-band scene where close-knit fans of the Dead and other acts were initially split in their advocacy or criticism of Bianchi The issue had weighed on the family-like scene for years as popular Bianchi-owned bars were targeted by musicians and advocates for sexual assault survivors in relation to Bianchi s alleged crimes Not mentioned in the trial were Bianchi s three decades of other legal troubles and criminal accusations related to his businesses and personal practices Bianchi had convictions for assault drug possession and the flouting of COVID-era mandates preceding the closure of the Bianchi-owned Sancho s Broken Arrow bar and So A large number of Roads Brewery in both sites of sexual assaults according to prosecutors Lawyers relied on hundreds of details during the trial photos of bodily injuries challenging testimony from bystanders nurses detectives and Bianchi employees and text video and phone call records but acknowledged that the amount of evidence could be overwhelming to jurors The prosecution urged jurors to ultimately believe the witness testimony while the defense argued that evidence proved Bianchi s innocence despite rumors and smear campaigns against him by supposedly jilted sexual partners former employees and critics on social media Bianchi had been a fixture of Colorado s jam-band scene for more than two decades previously owning and booking bands at Don Quixote -inspired venues including Quixote s True Blue Dulcinea s th Monkey Be on Key Psychedelic Ripple and Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom