Spielberg Takes Stand in Trial of Accused Stalker

Still shaken by an event that he said was unprecedented during his many years in the film industry, director-producer Steven Spielberg testified Wednesday that he remains frightened for himself and his family after an alleged stalker was arrested last summer outside his Pacific Palisades estate.

“The threat was very real to me. It is still real to me sitting here,” Spielberg told a crowded Santa Monica courtroom in the stalking trial of Jonathan Norman, 31, of Los Angeles.

“No one before has come into my life in a way to do me harm or my family harm,” Spielberg said. “I really felt--and I still to this day feel--I am prey to this individual.”

Testifying for more than 1 1/2 hours in Norman’s seventh day of trial, Spielberg recalled that he learned of Norman’s alleged plan to sexually assault him while Spielberg and his family were in Ireland in July to film a movie about World War II.

Notified in a telephone call from his longtime attorney and friend that Norman had been arrested, Spielberg said he was first stunned and then terrified over the alleged assailant’s plans to attack him.

“I reacted to the information, at first, with disbelief . . . and then I became quite frightened,” Spielberg told the seven-woman, five-man jury.

Indeed, Spielberg said that as alleged details of Norman’s plan and arrest were conveyed to him, he at one point became so rattled that he could no longer speak on the telephone and hung up.

“I was upset at hearing the information. I just wanted to get away from the telephone,” he said, recalling how he waited about 30 minutes before again talking with his attorney.

Although never directly contacted by Norman before or after the defendant’s arrest, Spielberg said he was told of Norman’s purported sexual obsession and that the former bodybuilder, when taken into custody, had handcuffs, duct tape, a box cutter and a day planner with the names of Spielberg’s family and business associates.

“I was concerned that he brought so many handcuffs. . . . I could only speculate that what he wanted to do to me, he might also want to do to someone else in my family,” Spielberg said, taking his one and only glance at the defendant and letting out a deep breath.

When asked by Deputy Dist. Atty. Rhonda Saunders about the box cutter taken from Norman, Spielberg again seemed shaken.

“The razor knife could have been used for . . . you know,” Spielberg said, slowly passing one hand across his throat and again taking a deep breath.

“Are you still frightened?” Saunders asked Spielberg, who came to court with at least two members of his personal security staff.

“Yes, I am,” Spielberg answered.

“Why?” Saunders asked.

“Because I think he is on a mission,” Spielberg replied, referring to Norman, “and I don’t think he will be satisfied until he accomplishes his mission. And I think I am the subject of his mission.”

While Norman sat quietly and never once looked up at the man he is alleged to have been obsessed with, defense attorney Jonathan Lawson gingerly attempted to challenge the notion that his client was anyone to fear.

In his cross-examination of Spielberg and other witnesses, Lawson had them acknowledge that many of the alleged details of Norman’s so-called obsession were easily culled from a variety of sources--everything from newspapers and fan magazines to maps of the homes of celebrities.

Moreover, if Norman was the threat that police and Spielberg’s security staff asserted, Lawson asked repeatedly, why did he never again visit Spielberg’s estate after his release from custody and why did it take three days for the director’s confidants to notify him in Ireland of Norman’s arrest and the need for tighter security measures?

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But try as he might, Lawson was unable to soften Spielberg’s depiction of Norman as someone who had gone far beyond the bounds of reasonable behavior--even for a fanatical fan.

“I’ve never done this before,” said Spielberg, who said he agreed to testify in a criminal case against Norman because he felt he and his family would otherwise be in danger.

“I don’t want to have to go through this again . . . the nightmares I have had over it,” Spielberg said. “I felt I had to do something.”

Spielberg, who left the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Steve C. Suzukawa through a back doorway, was one of the final prosecution witnesses in the case, which resumes Friday.

If found guilty of stalking Spielberg, Norman faces the possibility of a prison term of 25 years to life because of a 1995 conviction in a Santa Monica assault case.