Madonna’s Testimony Was ‘Acting,’ Accused Stalker’s Lawyer Says

Pop superstar Madonna is a prima donna and a liar, who “couldn’t stop acting” when she testified this week how fearful she is of a man accused of stalking her and threatening her life, the accused man’s lawyer told a jury Friday after testimony in the case ended.

But a prosecutor portrayed the entertainer to the jurors as someone with “flesh and feelings” who had every reason to believe that Robert Dewey Hoskins posed a significant threat to her and those around her.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rhonda Saunders, in her closing argument, scoffed at Hoskins’ lawyers’ contention that Madonna, her bodyguard and her personal assistant exaggerated their testimony to cover up the bodyguard’s unjustified shooting of Hoskins after he trespassed on the entertainer’s Hollywood Hills estate last year.

“The evidence in this case is overwhelming,” Saunders said, asking the jury to return guilty verdicts on charges that Hoskins stalked Madonna, made terrorist threats against her, her bodyguard and assistant and assaulted the bodyguard. Hoskins could face a maximum 10-year prison sentence if convicted.

The closing arguments came at the end of the third day of Hoskins’ trial, which featured Madonna being forced to come to court under the threat of being jailed on $5-million bail. Jury deliberations in the case are scheduled to begin Monday.

According to testimony from Madonna, her bodyguard, Basil Stephens, and her assistant, Caresse Norman, Hoskins came to the entertainer’s estate three times.

The first time, they said, he scaled the estate’s 40-foot wall, but was chased off by Stephens. The next day, the three testified, Hoskins left what Saunders portrayed as a deranged note and verbally threatened to kill Norman and everyone in the house. He also allegedly threatened to kill Stephens and Madonna and glared at the singer when she happened to arrive and passed by him.

In May, he scaled the wall again, Stephens testified. It was during that incident that Stephens shot Hoskins, testifying that Hoskins had physically attacked him and tried to take his gun.

In arguing for not guilty verdicts for his client, Hoskins’ lawyer, Deputy Public Defender E. John Myers, said prosecutors should never have filed more than trespassing charges against Hoskins because Hoskins came face-to-face with Madonna only once and did not try to harm her.

Madonna testified that she believes Hoskins didn’t try to hurt her then because he didn’t recognize her under a cap, sunglasses and baggy clothing.

Ridiculing that testimony, Myers donned a pair of sunglasses and asked the jurors if they could still recognize him.

Myers further sought to discredit Madonna by noting that she had lied about her identity when a detective tried to serve her with a subpoena, ignored orders to be in court and made flippant remarks on the witness stand.

“She’s not really Madonna, she’s a prima donna,” Myers told the jury. “She comes in here and she’s acting. She can’t stop acting.”

Saunders countered that laws on stalking and terrorist threats require only that Hoskins intended to instill fear in Madonna and did so. That was proven by testimony, she said.