Officer’s Wife Describes Armed Attack : Courts: She testifies that two intruders broke into their home and one of them raped her daughter and threatened to kill her husband.

A mother describing a night of terror in her own home testified Friday that her daughter was raped by one of two shotgun-toting intruders because the girl’s father was a police officer.

The testimony came during a trial in Van Nuys Superior Court for Robert Smith, 25, who is charged with 36 felony counts stemming from late-night robberies in seven homes during a 10-day period in April, 1991.

Prosecutors have described Smith, who faces five life terms in prison if convicted on all counts, as a “mini crime wave” and “the public’s worst nightmare.”

The police officer’s wife testified that after being awakened by a loud noise in her home April 10, 1991, she was accosted by a masked man who ordered her to lie on the living room floor next to her 15-year-old daughter.

The pair were covered with a blanket, she said, and while one gunman watched over them, a second armed assailant, believed to be Smith, searched the house for money.

After apparently walking into the master bedroom and seeing a large mirror that was etched with the words “Burbank Police Department,” the assailant became enraged, the woman recounted. “He yelled out (to our daughter), ‘Is your dad a cop?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ He just started screaming and yelling, ‘I hate cops, I hate cops.’ ”

As the mother and her daughter cowered under the blanket, the intruder made a series of threats, the woman testified.

She recalled the intruder yelling: “Maybe we better stick around a little bit longer so we can blow him away. I can just see the headlines tomorrow, ‘Cop’s brains blown all over the sidewalk.’ Or maybe we should blow you away so he can come home and see your brains before we blow him away.”

With his partner still standing guard, the assailant grabbed the teen-ager and brought her to her bedroom, the mother testified, where the girl was raped.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman believes Smith is the man who raped the girl. Before the girl testifies next Wednesday, Richman will present evidence from genetic experts who will say that Smith’s blood matches evidence collected from the girl after the attack.

While the man alleged to be Smith was in the bedroom with the girl, the second robber forced the mother to undress and made lewd comments to her, but he did not assault her, according to testimony.

When mother and daughter were reunited, a gun was put to the back of the woman’s head, she testified. The rapist barked at her, “OK, mom, is there any last words you want to say to your daughter?”

My daughter “just squeezed my hand because we knew we were going to die,” she said.

Minutes later, the police officer arrived home, according to testimony. Even though he was calling his wife’s name, the woman would not respond, remembering the robbers’ earlier threats.

“I guess I was waiting for a gunshot because they said they were going to wait for him,” she testified.