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Reiser Fumbling Over Why Police Told Nina to Get Gun; Says 'Housekeeper' Cheaper Than Marriage

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

OAKLAND, California -- Murder defendant Hans Reiser fumbled for the first time on the witness stand Thursday, his third day of testifying before jurors who are weighing whether the popular Linux programmer killed his wife in 2006.

About 20 minutes later, he labeled himself a "patronizing asshole" in response to questions about him telling partygoers that his family was a "financial burden."

But first, to the fumbling:

Under direct examination from his attorney, William DuBois, the defendant could not directly answer why a police officer in 2005 suggested that his estranged wife, Nina Reiser, get a gun to protect herself from the husband she was divorcing. The Oakland police officer, Bejamin Denson, testified in November that he told Nina "You need to get yourself a gun."

"That man used to loom over her, to glare at her," the officer testified Nov. 29.

Here are excerpts of the exchange Thursday between the 44-year-old defendant and DuBois:

"Did you conduct yourself in a menacing manner in front of the police?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't think anybody would conduct themselves in a menacing manner in front of the police," he said. The defendant, moments later, added: "Nina worked him."

"What does that mean?" DuBois asked.

"I mean she just did the whole routine on him."

"Would you give us an example of what you mean?"

"I can't remember the details of it but she was, uhm…."

DuBois interjected: "Give us something general."

The defendant could not.

"Uhm." (He pauses for about 40 seconds.) "I can tell you stories about her working other people," he said. "I just don't remember the whole details. I just don't remember the details of what I heard…."

"It's hard to understand what you're saying in the abstract," DuBois said.

Moments later, the defendant continued on how Nina Reiser "worked" officer Denson.

"She just worked him. I mean Nina just works people. Uhm. You know Nina I remember…. She'll just look people in the eyes and she'll smile and she'll say these words of flattery. And I'll be sitting there thinking this is just too over the top. ..And uhm, I remember once there was this wonderful old man who was kind of shaped like a bowling ball. She walked up to him and stroked him on the tummy and said there's nothing but muscle here. He just beamed….That was Nina."

Seated next to a bailiff for security reasons, Reiser added: "It's been a long time. I don't remember these details."

"Did you do anything to cause Ben Denson to say to get a gun?" DuBois asked.

"No."

"Had you done anything bizarre or unusual?"

"No."

Officer Denson, who is now retired, had testified he was on evening duty -- what he called the "dogwatch shift" -- at the Oakland Police Department most every Wednesday in 2005. It was there, he testified, he supervised divorcing families and the Reisers exchanging their two young children inside police headquarters.

The officer testified he often saw intense animosity between Nina and Hans when they exchanged their kids.

Nina Reiser, at age 31, vanished after dropping off the couple's kids to the open source programmer's house for the Labor Day weekend on Sept. 3, 2006. Prosecutor Paul Hora said she never left the Oakland hills house alive.

The defendant claims his wife, who he met in Russia in 1998 while hiring programmers to develop his ReiserFS filesystem, left Oakland for Russia and abandoned their kids, a boy now 8 and girl now 6.

Next , Reiser accused Nina of having Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, and was making up illnesses for their son.

And then the defendant began answering why he told partygoers his family was a financial burden.

"I was being a patronizing asshole."

"What I was saying, men don't need for themselves wives and children. If a man is taking care of wives and children, he is being generous," the defendant testified.

"It does sound like you were being a patronizing asshole," DuBois said.

"Yeah."

"Why were you being a patronizing asshole on this occasion?" DuBois asked.

A few responses later, the defendant said that marriage and family "it's altruistic in the financial sense. Well, and, uhm, you know. It’s a lot cheaper to hire a housekeeper."

After a short break, without being asked any questions, the defendant uttered from the stand: "I don’t think it's possible for a man to be happy without a wife and children."

THREAT LEVEL is providing gavel-to-gavel coverage. Trial is recessing for lunch.

Sketches by Wired.com's Norman Quebedeau.

See Also:

• Live Blog: Hans Reiser Denies Murdering His Wife
• Hans Reiser Taking Witness Stand Now; Did You Kill Your Wife?
• Defense Planting Seeds of Doubt; Hans Reiser Likely to Testify ...
• Hans Reiser Evading Police Because He Was Upset, Feared Arrest ...
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: The Ego, the Filesystem and No Mention ...
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: Indigent, Technospeak and Evading Detection
• Hans Reiser to Testify; Judge Says Sufficient Evidence to 'Sustain ...
• Hans Reiser Murder Trial: The Vilification Defense Begins -- UPDATE II

Full post as published by Threat Level on March 06, 2008 (boomark / email).