Judge Slaps Zsa Zsa With 3 Days in Jail

Zsa Zsa Gabor, who turned a routine traffic stop into a slap heard around the world, Tuesday was ordered to serve three days in jail, to pay fines and retribution totaling $12,937, to perform 120 hours of community service--and to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

“If I could let emotions enter into this, Ms. Gabor, I can assure you that you would spend a far longer time in county jail,” Beverly Hills Municipal Judge Charles G. Rubin said after a four-hour hearing before a packed courtroom.

In his strongly worded ruling, Rubin said he decided against a longer jail term, in part because of the actress’s age--she is reportedly 66--and because she brought no physical harm to Beverly Hills Police Officer Paul Kramer when she slapped him with her open right palm on June 14.

But the judge expressed outrage over Gabor’s behavior throughout the three-week trial, which attracted worldwide attention last month. The usually placid Rubin accused the former Miss Hungary of “milking” the criminal justice system to publicize herself and unfairly attacking Kramer and the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Gabor lashed out at Kramer repeatedly during the trial, accusing the motorcycle officer at one point of having several gay lovers. She also contradicted herself numerous times while on the witness stand and claimed that police videotapes of her made after her arrest were doctored to show her using vulgar language.

Rubin ordered Gabor to pay the largest single chunk of her retribution--$10,000--to Beverly Hills police to help offset the department’s cost of conducting the trial. He made it clear that the award was an unusual one, handed down because of Gabor’s “aggressive verbal attacks” on the department.

Gabor was fined $2,350 for slapping Kramer, $352 for driving without a license and $235 for possessing an open container of alcohol--a flask of Jack Daniels--in her Rolls-Royce.

In ordering her to undergo psychiatric evaluation, Rubin said he saw in Gabor evidence of “hyper” or “manic” behavior--although not enough to stand as a legal defense against her crimes.

“She has demonstrated an attitude of continual contempt for the legal system,” Rubin said. “Miss Gabor, in this case, not only slapped the face of Officer Kramer out there on Olympic Boulevard. But by her vituperative and denigrating comments, she has verbally slapped the faces . . . of almost every prosecution witness that appeared in this case. And she was not satisfied with that, but she turned around and slapped the face of every American by claiming that the United States is worse than Communist Russia. . . .”

Sits Silently

Gabor, who conceded she was nervous before sentencing, sat silent and motionless as Rubin commented on each of the three misdemeanor counts.

At one point, apparently seeing Gabor smile, Rubin warned her, “You laugh, Ms. Gabor. . . .”

Quickly, Gabor said, “I’m not laughing.”

Moments later, Gabor defended her comments during the trial by saying, “I have said the gospel truth--I don’t know if you know what that means.”

Rubin responded by describing her courtroom demeanor as “a continuing tantrum,” adding: “It’s time for you to stop it and begin acting like the kind of lady you so repeatedly say that you are.”

Gabor has 30 days to appeal the sentence, but her attorney, Harrison E. Bull, declined to say whether such action would be filed. “The options are open to us,” he said. “I don’t want to comment on his (Rubin’s) comments.”

Gabor said, “Thank God it’s over,” and added, “I am a very good American. I love America, I will say that,” before leaving the third-floor courtroom.

But the actress, who regularly spoke to reporters throughout the trial, eluded a crowd of about 60 media representatives waiting on the courthouse steps, apparently leaving via a rear exit.

Her husband, Prince Frederick Von Anhalt of West Germany, left the courthouse alone, calling the sentence unfair and saying he would volunteer to serve time in her place.

He was greeted by a street band, Hello Disaster, whose three members wore black leather jackets and played a specially written song, “Let There Be Justice,” celebrating Gabor’s jail sentence.

“I’m just happy she got something,” said band member Shaun Kay, 21. “I think she really could have gotten more of a sentence.”

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner had sought a 30-day sentence. But at a press conference Tuesday afternoon he expressed pleasure that the judge “did recognize, and in strong terms, that she must go to jail.

“Zsa Zsa Gabor tried to make a mockery out of the idea of equal justice,” Reiner said. “She has an unfortunate history of trying to turn everything into farce and to mock everything.

“You know, this did not start out as a particularly important case,” Reiner added. “It started out as a minor incident. But what elevated this beyond . . . a minor case was her conduct over that three-week period during the trial where she made a mockery out of everything. And it wasn’t just a mockery of the criminal justice system . . . the judge, the police officers, the court personnel, the prosecutors, the entire system, which she dismissed as a Nazi-type system because anybody would presume to judge Zsa Zsa Gabor.”

Beverly Hills police spokesman Lt. Robert Curtis said that Police Chief Marvin D. Iannone called the sentencing “eminently fair.”

“The chief feels that the department has been truly vindicated and that the judicial process has run its course,” he said, noting that Kramer was not expected to comment.

Rubin pronounced sentence after denying a bid by Bull for a new trial, based on assertions that Gabor’s trial lawyer had improperly solicited her business and was unsuited to handle the case.

Bull, hired by Gabor earlier this month, argued that the actress’s former attorney, William Graysen, violated state Bar Assn. policies by volunteering to handle the case free because of the publicity it would bring him.

In addition, Bull argued that Graysen violated similar policies by “guaranteeing” to Gabor that she would not go to jail, thus implying that the actress could speak out or act any way she chose during the trial, which cost $30,000.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Elden Fox, however, noted that Graysen was not involved in Gabor’s appearances on “Entertainment Tonight,” “The Arsenio Hall Show” and other television and radio shows in which the actress appeared to seek publicity after her arrest.

In denying the motion, Rubin said, “It is clear to the court that Ms. Gabor is a very aware and sophisticated person who . . . could have chosen any attorney she wanted to. She chose Mr. Graysen above all others.”