Jurors View Key Tape at Fleiss Trial : Court: Video depicts activities that led to arrest of the alleged ‘madam to the stars.’ Defense contends she was enticed into breaking the law.

Jurors sat transfixed Tuesday as they watched a videotape of undercover police officers and four alleged prostitutes socializing in a Beverly Hills hotel suite--scenes from the now-infamous evening that led to the arrest and trial of accused Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss on charges of pandering and possession of cocaine for sale.

Beverly Hills undercover Detective Sammy Lee took the stand in Los Angeles Superior Court and explained the contents of taped phone calls between him and Fleiss, and a videotape of four women and four men at a hotel suite that had been bugged by police. The tape was played and halted at various moments during his morning testimony.

Fleiss, the daughter of a prominent pediatrician, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her arrest last year sent shock waves through Hollywood as rumors began circulating about her alleged clientele, said to include entertainment stars and industry executives.

Overnight, the 28-year-old high school dropout became a media sensation. But her trial, which began this week, will focus on the evening in June, 1993, that was captured on tape. Jurors must decide whether Fleiss broke the law, as prosecutors maintain, or was pushed by bullying, deceptive police into committing a crime, as her attorneys claim.

Lee, posing as a wealthy Hawaiian businessman of Japanese descent, arranged with Fleiss for four “girls” to entertain his three colleagues at a luxurious Beverly Hills hotel suite, according to tapes and his testimony.

The night before the planned party, one woman arrived at Lee’s suite, as he had arranged with Fleiss, the tapes indicated. After about 15 minutes of conversation, Lee said he and the woman moved into the suite bedroom, where they discussed having sex and he paid her $1,500.

When the woman was partially disrobed, Lee’s telephone and beeper rang--a precaution that police had arranged so Lee would not have to compromise the investigation, he testified.

“I explained to her that I had to leave,” said Lee, who acknowledged that the woman gave him a hug while she was partially dressed.

“Did you ask for the hug?” asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Carter.

“No,” Lee said.

At 9:35 a.m. the next day, the day of the planned party, Lee said he called Fleiss to thank her for the woman who had come to his hotel room and to make sure arrangements were set for the evening.

“Thanks for last night. Everything was just as you said it would be,” Lee said, according to a tape of the telephone conversation.

In this conversation, Lee told Fleiss that he wanted to buy cocaine and have one of the women bring the drug to the hotel suite--a request that Fleiss agreed to, according to the tape.

Fleiss’ lawyer, Anthony Brooklier, sharply questioned Lee, pounding home his theme that Fleiss had been induced to commit a crime. On the stand, Lee said that he had gotten into a popular Westside club and asked a friend of Fleiss to introduce him to her.

“Heidi Fleiss didn’t ask to be introduced to you, correct? It was your idea,” Brooklier said. “You asked for her telephone number? She didn’t offer it, correct? . . . If you don’t contact her, she probably never calls you. But you do call, correct?”

In recent months, Fleiss’ troubles have piled up. In federal court, she and her father were charged in August with money laundering and tax evasion; they both pleaded not guilty. One month later, she was arrested after drug tests--which she had been ordered to take as a term of her probation--indicated she had used stimulants and depressants.

On Tuesday, Fleiss, dressed in an elegant black suit with cuffs of velvet, appeared composed during the proceedings.

More on Heidi Fleiss: * Articles from The Times’ archives bring it all back: the media hoopla, the rumors in Tinseltown and the life and fast times of the alleged “madam to the stars.”

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