Fleiss Defense Rests, Claims Entrapment : Trial: Alleged Hollywood madam and jury share laughter over scenes in vice sting videotape.

Wrapping up with another dose of unintentional comic relief, the defense rested Tuesday in the Heidi Fleiss trial, reiterating its claim that the alleged Hollywood madam was entrapped by police.

Fleiss--looking healthier than she has in two years and attired once again in a business suit and spectacles--broke her impassive facade only once, laughing with the jury as they viewed more scenes from an often hilarious videotape of the vice sting that resulted in her arrest.

The 28-year-old alleged madam has pleaded not guilty to charges of pandering and possession of cocaine for sale. Her case is expected to go to the jury after closing arguments next week.

Fleiss’ lawyers pressed their contention that it was the police--not Fleiss--who initiated the assignation that ended in her arrest in June. In that incident, Detective Sammy Lee, a slight, mustachioed Beverly Hills vice officer who used his own Ferrari as a prop, posed as a Honolulu textile heir who needed four call girls to clinch a deal with some Japanese investors.

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Lee has testified that he sought out Fleiss through one of her girlfriends at a party at the Rangoon Racquet Club, getting her telephone number and later calling her to set up the fateful date. In June, 1993, he testified, Fleiss met him at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, telling him that procuring women and some cocaine would be “no problem.”

That meeting and the assignation were secretly taped by police. On Tuesday, defense attorneys sought to prove the crime would not have occurred had authorities not set it up, pointing out scenes in the video that depict undercover vice cops--not call girls--raising the subject of paid sex.

The jury, however, seemed more impressed with the goofy spectacle provided by both the cops and call girls, as yet another American-born vice cop was shown doing a bad impression of a Japanese businessman, while his would-be consort took her best shot at appearing sophisticated beyond her years.

In one encounter caught on tape, confessed call girl Brandi McClain--who has said in interviews that she became a weekend “Heidi girl” to put herself through a San Diego community college--accepts fifteen $100 bills from Lee.

Lee, who pretends that he is the only businessman in the group who can speak fluent English, has the 23-year-old McClain sitting demurely in a chair while a fellow officer, posing as his middle-aged Tokyo investor, sits in his shirt sleeves on a corner of the king-size hotel bed.

Los Angeles Police Detective Steven Takeshita testified Tuesday that he did his best to convincingly play his role as the investor, even though he speaks very little Japanese. At one point in the video, he tries to get McClain to explicitly solicit him by asking in broken English: “You no do certain type?”

“Like what?” the 23-year-old in the conservative pantsuit asks earnestly. Lee urges McClain to “tell him what your plan is” and McClain draws another blank.

“Like what?” she repeats.

Ad-libbing, Takeshita fumbles for a moment and then blurts out the Japanese word for “rear-end.” McClain looks at him quizzically and he stammers in English, “Um, backside!”

“My backside?” she laughs incredulously. “What about it?”

Takeshita testified that he and Lee were trying to coax McClain into detailing which sex acts she would or would not engage in for pay. The jury burst into uncontrollable giggles as the tape showed the two officers ad-libbing before McClain in ersatz Japanese, making up words for various sex acts as the wide-eyed McClain marvels, “Oh, is that what that means?”

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The sting, which was filmed via hidden camera and monitored by up to 20 police officers from an adjoining room, culminates in a suggestion by Lee that each man choose a young woman. “And get naked!” McClain interjects merrily.

But first, Lee asks the women to do a striptease. They self-consciously comply, simultaneously giggling and singing because of a lack of music to undress by.

Two are topless and the rest are in underwear when police burst in. On the stand, Takeshita said the request to disrobe had been planned in advance to buttress evidence that the women intended to have paid sex. The dancing, however, was not necessary to make the case and was added to the request on a whim, he said.