The defense in the Elizabeth Taylor v. Alki David trial closed with a blockbuster witness, who shot down both Taylor’s testimony and evidence as fabricated
Photo of Lisa Bloom and Elizabeth Taylor from Bloom’s official Twitter page.It was the last day of a three week trial in a stifling hot courtroom in DTLA, when the final two witnesses for Alki David and FilmOn testified. In the morning, David had been excluded from the courtroom by Judge Christopher Lui for his unorthodox style in representing himself, in which he frequently blew past guidelines set by Lui inadvertently working in evidence that the Bloom team had manipulated the system into excluding. David left the courtroom noisily, shouting about the sham trial and his upcoming lawsuit against The Bloom Firm for malicious prosecution.
But his witnesses left no doubt that Taylor’s allegations are false. Her direct supervisor, Carl Dawson explained how awful her performance was at he job, how he helped her to try to improve her sales skills, and how he warned her many times about her attendance problems.
Dawson showed that Taylor only made her monthly quota once, and that even that sale had to be closed by him because she couldn’t do her job–in fact he said he found out late in her employment that she had lied about her sales experience, and lied about her time trying to become a wrestler with the WWE. He also pointed out that she never disclosed or asked for any help with her pre-existing mental health problems. He also explained very clearly that he fired her because she took an unapproved two week vacation–and he didn’t even know when of if she would be back.
“Actually I was afraid, Alki would fire me,” he said on the stand. “For not having control of her.”
When he fired her he said she cried and he brought her to the Controller/Head of HR, Yelena Calendar. He pointed out that Taylor made no complaint or mention of her future allegations at that time.
Bloom’s cross involved a lot of wild hand gestures, but very little substance. It was heightened though by the pink kimono she wore, and her inability no matter how hard she tried to trip Dawson up.
The next witness was Yelena Calendar, who described multiple complaints about Elizabeth Taylor during her 4 and a half months working there. She explained that though her main job was as controller, she also acted as an HR person. And had always followed California state regulations including posting and handing out official literature about how to make sexual harassment complaints.
She referred to the previous day’s testimony when another ex-coworker witness was accused by Taylor of being a devil worshipper. But most importantly she was able to show that Taylor’s assertion that she was a “top performer” was absolutely false.
On the day she was fired, Taylor did not make any harassment claims of any kind and when shown an email Taylor says she sent that evening that mentions the claims, Calendar said she could not verify it was real–that it didn’t fit her memory of the email she got and could have been doctored later.
Calendar also called into question a previous email about filling out insurance forms–which she testified were being filled out according to the instructions of the insurance broker so that everyone’s insurance could start on time.
“That doesn’t look like the way I would phrase a request,” she said. “So, no, I can’t say that’s my email to the staff at that time. It really looks like it could have been faked.” On further questioning it was made clear to the jury that the only source for these emails in evidence was from Taylor’s records and the other ex-employees represented by Bloom and her mother Gloria Allred who are suing Alki David.
When questioned about whether she was really saying she felt there was a group who had worked together to fix their stories and fake evidence, Calendar said absolutely yes.
“There are like a pack of hyenas smelling money,” Calendar told the jury. “Those girls are not girls with integrity. I know Alki. I know he would never force himself on anybody.”