Gabor Gives a Slam-Bang Tale of Arrest : Testimony Replete With Expletives Caps Wild Day in Courtroom

A spirited Zsa Zsa Gabor took center stage at her criminal trial on Tuesday, capping a wild day in court with a colorful, slam-bang account of her altercation with a Beverly Hills policeman.

“He hurt me like hell,” Gabor said, testifying for the first time about Paul Kramer, the 6-foot-4-inch motorcycle officer who handcuffed and arrested her following a routine traffic stop in June.

“He said, ‘You f---, get out of the car,’ ” Gabor said.

Immediately, she said, Kramer reached through the window to open the car door and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her out of her $210,000 Rolls-Royce.

‘You’re Hurting Me’

“I said, ‘Officer, you’re hurting me,’ ” Gabor testified, delicately censoring many of the expletives that were allegedly a part of the exchange. “He said, ‘I’m going to break your f-ing arms and your legs,’ again with the F (word). I was screaming--’You’re hurting me!’--And he liked it. He liked hurting me. He was smiling. . . .

“He was the toughest, nastiest, rudest person I ever saw in my life. . . . Officer Kramer was like a wild animal.”

Gabor, who admitted slapping Kramer after she stepped from the car, claimed that the action was a “reflex” done in self-defense. “I don’t even know why I hit him,” she said.

Seconds later, she said, she was brusquely handcuffed and bent over the trunk of the Rolls. Later, she was forced to sit on the curb, with her dress riding embarrassingly high on her legs, before being taken to police headquarters.

“I said, ‘Officer, I’m going to get a heart attack,’ ” she testified. “He said, ‘I hope you get an f-ing heart attack and I’ll call the f-ing paramedics. . . .”

‘I’m a Hungarian Woman’

Asked if she tried to resist being handcuffed, Gabor added: “I’m a Hungarian woman. I’m sure I was not being a milquetoast. I was probably trying to get away.”

The account--which is expected to continue this morning--differed markedly from Kramer’s own testimony last week, in which he denied pulling Gabor from her car or swearing at her, except to say “quit (expletive) around” while he was applying handcuffs. According to Kramer’s version, it was Gabor who unleashed a string of obscenities after he asked her three times to step out of the Rolls.

Kramer Hospitalized

In a bizarre twist to Tuesday’s events, Kramer was hospitalized after being thrown from his police motorcycle less than an hour before Gabor took the stand. The mishap--within walking distance of Beverly Hills Municipal Court--occurred when Kramer’s cycle collided with a police patrol car as both were responding to a report of a suspected gunman on Rodeo Drive, said Police Lt. Robert Curtis.

Kramer--a 13-year police veteran--was catapulted halfway across an intersection and temporarily knocked unconscious. He was in stable condition at UCLA Medical Center with severe bruises and scrapes, Curtis said.

Meanwhile, Gabor exhibited her most emotional outburst of the trial earlier in the day, bolting from court and returning in tears midway through the testimony of Police Officer Scott Thompson.

Thompson, who had helped to take Gabor to jail, was recalling the arrest scene with Gabor sitting handcuffed on the curb. Thompson testified that as soon as he arrived to assist Kramer, “She (Gabor) looked at me and said, ‘You mother (expletive), I’ll have your job! I’m calling the Reagans on this!’ ”

At that point in the testimony, Gabor stood and attempted to leave, muttering “I can’t take this,” as she marched toward the back doors of the courtroom chamber. Judge Charles G. Rubin stopped her, saying, “Will you come back here, Ms. Gabor?” He then admonished her against leaving the courtroom.

Sobbing Aloud

Returning to the defense table, Gabor sat and began to sob aloud, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. Rubin ordered a five-minute recess.

As testimony resumed, Thompson gave a graphic account of Gabor seated on the curb in handcuffs, describing her demeanor as “hysterical.”

“She screamed her wrists were bleeding--(that) she was bleeding,” Thompson said. A check of her handcuffs showed they were actually rather loose, he testified. Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this story.