Too Old to Rile if Not Provoked, Zsa Zsa Says

Zsa Zsa Gabor, complaining of a terrible headache, took the witness stand for a second day of cross-examination Thursday and immediately confessed--to being old.

“Mr. Fox, I am an old lady,” the 60-something actress told Deputy Dist. Atty. Elden Fox, who is prosecuting her for slapping a Beverly Hills cop. “Would I hit a 6-foot-6 cop with a gun if he isn’t insulting me to death?”

Then Gabor, saying she was so fatigued she had not returned a Wednesday telephone call from former President Ronald Reagan, stepped aside for other defense witnesses, who supported her claim that she acted in self-defense.

Rosa Peric, a Hancock Park art dealer, became the star defense witness thus far in the two-week trial, testifying that she was driving past the scene June 14 when Gabor emerged from her white Rolls-Royce and slapped Officer Paul Kramer. With what she called a “perfect view” from high in her Jeep, Peric disputed police officer testimony that Gabor stepped out of the Rolls on her own before hitting Kramer.

Rather, Peric testified, Kramer pulled Gabor out by the wrist and then slammed the car door. Peric called the treatment of Gabor “very rough, in my opinion.”

Another defense witness, Melanie Jonkers flew west from Virginia to testify that Kramer treated her arrogantly and abrasively after pulling her over for a violation involving a child’s car seat in October, 1988.

Jonkers, one of several witnesses called by Gabor to try to prove “a pattern” of misconduct by Kramer, told jurors she ultimately was handcuffed and seated on the curb while her 2-year-old daughter was kept in her car with the windows up in 100-degree heat. Then she was jailed briefly.

Jonkers said she decided to testify for Gabor “to set the record straight . . . about how abusive this man (Kramer) is.”

Under cross-examination, however, Jonkers conceded that her daughter’s head was partially out the window of her Mercedes when she was pulled over by Kramer. She also admitted that she refused to sign a traffic citation, explaining to jurors that it was her first ticket, that she was not from Los Angeles and that Kramer told her she would have to appear in court.

Jonkers said she became so upset at the time that she doubted Kramer was really a police officer and ran into the street, attempting to stop a public transit bus and a car as she cried for help.