Recovered from a tearful attempt to flee the courtroom, Zsa Zsa Gabor testified that she slapped a policeman but only in self-defense after he had roughed her up.
Gabor, accused of hitting an officer, driving with an expired license and having an open liquor bottle in her car, broke into tears at her trial Tuesday when another officer testified she swore at him and threatened to "have your job." Sobbing, the former actress bolted for the door but stopped when the judge ordered her to return to her seat."It is a total lie," Gabor said, crying and clutching a handkerchief. "I can't take this."
The outburst took place during the testimony of Beverly Hills Police Officer Scott Thompson, who arrived at the scene after Gabor had been pulled over June 14 by Officer Paul Kramer for driving her $215,000 Rolls-Royce convertible with expired license tags.
Thompson, when asked by Deputy District Attorney Elden Fox to describe what happened at the scene, said Gabor swore at him.
"She looked at me and said, `You mother---. I'll have your job for this. I'm calling the Reagans on this," Thompson testified.
Spectators gasped, and Gabor bolted from her chair toward the door. Municipal Court Judge Charles Rubin ordered her to return to her seat, and she and her lawyer went into an adjacent room for five minutes so she could compose herself.
Thompson testified that when he was taking her to the police station Gabor asked him, "Why am I under arrest?"
"I said she was under arrest for slapping a police officer. She said `Of course I slapped the mother---. Nobody talks that way to Zsa Zsa."'
Fox rested his case in the afternoon, and Gabor took the stand to tell her side of the incident.
While Gabor was testifying, the officer she slapped crashed his motorcycle into a police car as he raced to back up officers who had stopped a suspicious car on Rodeo Drive. Kramer, 38, was thrown from his motorcycle and was listed in stable condition at UCLA Medical Center with a head injury.
Gabor testified that Kramer "scared the life out of me" when he turned on his lights and siren and pulled her over.
"I never met a man like Officer Kramer," Gabor testified. "He was handsome, but he was the toughest, rudest, nastiest man I ever met in my life."
Gabor said she was humiliated when Kramer grabbed her and handcuffed her on a busy Beverly Hills street. She said he forced her over the hood of the Rolls and her short designer dress hiked up to the middle of her thighs.
"Did you hit Officer Kramer without justification?" asked her lawyer, William Graysen.
"No, I was self-defensing myself," Gabor replied.