Man Says He Lived With Lindsay’s Girlfriend : Trial: He testifies that he resided in the woman’s home for about a year before the councilman died. She is accused in a suit of bilking the city official out of money and property.

The trial of Juanda Chauncie, accused in a lawsuit of bilking the late Gilbert Lindsay out of money and property, took on aspects of a soap opera Tuesday when a 46-year-old exterminator testified that he lived with her about a year before the longtime Los Angeles city councilman’s death.

Frank Marshall, owner of a pest control business based in Inglewood, testified that he even became engaged to Chauncie, 40, who has maintained that she was engaged only to Lindsay.

According to the lawsuit filed by Lindsay’s stepson and estate, Chauncie manipulated a frail and ailing Lindsay out of money, land, fur and jewels.

Chauncie testified earlier that Marshall was a homosexual friend and that all they ever did together was “cook chili.”

Marshall said Tuesday that he lived with Chauncie in a sexual relationship for about six months and that he is not gay.

Chauncie had testified that she said she became engaged in 1988 to the councilman, who died at age 90 in December, 1990. Asked by Carl Douglas, attorney for the estate, if she had become romantically involved with another man during that engagement, Chauncie replied: “No.”

Marshall testified Tuesday that he moved into Chauncie’s Baldwin Hills home shortly after she bought it in 1989. He said she never told him that she was engaged to the councilman. She explained that Lindsay, a councilman for 27 years, was “like a father” to her, Marshall testified. “She said ‘he (Lindsay) likes to have me around as a showpiece.”’

Marshall said he and Chauncie never married because she demanded that he give her jewelry and pay her bills, including a $2,200 monthly mortgage. “I just couldn’t afford Juanda,” he testified.

Although Marshall testified that he paid some of her bills before he moved out of the Baldwin Hills house in early 1990, he said he had no canceled checks or receipts to prove it.

“It’s obvious he was lying,” Chauncie’s attorney, Geraldine Green, said outside the courtroom.

Chauncie has testified that Marshall was a pal who wore her clothes around her house. They cooked together, she said, but he never lived there. Marshall, now married, testified that he only once donned Chauncie’s mink hat in fun.

Marshall portrayed Chauncie as a woman who was leading a double life. He said she never told him about Lindsay or the extent of her dealings with the councilman.

Earlier testimony showed that the councilman called Chauncie daily and saw her as often as he could. He paid bills that included her mortgage, credit card charges and a lease payment on her car. He picked up a $2,050 bill that Chauncie incurred at a fashion show and allowed her to charge $5,300 on a credit card for a diamond necklace and bracelet. After he put her name on one of his bank accounts, she wrote checks totaling $54,000 in one five-day period.

Chauncie has portrayed these gifts as an old man’s gratitude for attention he was not receiving from his own family. Stepson Herbert A. Howard contends that Chauncie and her mother and sister conspired to defraud Lindsay while he was senile, and virtually gutted an estimated $400,000 estate.

Chauncie testified that she did not consider Lindsay senile. City Council President John Ferraro testified Monday that he noted “a substantial difference” in Lindsay after the councilman suffered a stroke in late 1988.