Doctor Disputes Statements of Holden Accuser : Courts: Psychiatrist testifies that the plaintiff described the defendant as circumcised. Councilman says he is not.

A psychiatrist testified Wednesday that the woman suing Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden for sexual harassment--in part because he allegedly forced her to touch his penis and attempted to make her perform oral sex--told him that Holden is circumcised.

But Holden, outside court, said he is not. “If you don’t see, you don’t know,” the 66-year-old lawmaker said. “She didn’t see--I’ve been saying that all along. She doesn’t know. She is dead wrong.”

“It’s a fairly clear-cut issue,” said Holden’s attorney, Skip Miller.

Lawyers for plaintiff Marlee M. Beyda, who worked as a receptionist in Holden’s field office for about 14 months, insist that their client never discussed circumcision with the psychiatrist, David Paster. During six days on the stand, Beyda was never asked about circumcision; she testified that she saw Holden’s penis but did not notice any distinguishing marks.

“I am certain that she never said he was circumcised,” attorney Dan Stormer said during a break in Paster’s testimony Wednesday. “She tried not to look at what [Holden] was shoving in her face.”

One of two women suing Holden and the city for harassment, Beyda has focused her accusations on a series of after-hours visits to Holden’s Marina del Rey apartment during which she says he forced sexual contact and offered to advance her career in exchange for sexual favors.

The circumcision controversy was heightened by the fact that both Paster and Beyda tape-recorded their four-hour interview, but neither tape mentions circumcision, prompting accusations of Watergate-type evidence tampering.

Both sides joked about bringing in Rose Mary Woods, the late secretary to President Richard Nixon, who allegedly erased parts of her boss’s tapes before turning them over to government investigators.

Lawyers for the defense requested Beyda’s tape after they discovered that Paster’s tape recorder had malfunctioned. They said Wednesday that audio expert Norman Pearl would testify that the tape Beyda gave them was not the original, and had been altered or erased in about 60 places.

“We have destruction of evidence,” Michael O’Connor, Miller’s partner, told Superior Court Judge Raymond D. Mireles, who is hearing the case without a jury. “There is no benign explanation for this.”

But Stormer told Mireles his opposition was “grandstanding.”

“We did not touch, alter the tape in any way,” Stormer said outside court.

During his lengthy testimony Wednesday, Paster said the circumcision question was just one of several examples of how Beyda muddled details of the alleged incidents with Holden, leading him to think her story was made up.

“She described at one point graphic sexual events . . . and yet said there was nothing about his penis that stood out physically,” he said. “She at times changed her answers and seemed to have significant difficulty with specific recall of events. . . . There went on to be confusion about dates, about what happened when.”

Paster also disputed previous expert testimony that Beyda suffered from depression, and said instead that she had a personality disorder caused by events other than the alleged harassment.

He described her as an “opportunist” who tended to “externalize blame” onto authority figures and showed deep-seated hostility toward her family. He also said she was prone to explosive outbursts, “someone who presents a good social front but has a longstanding anger and resentment.”

Paster will charge the city about $25,000 for his work on the Holden case, including about 70 hours of preparation and one day in court.