Prosecution rests in Tony Zendejas rape trial

The prosecution rested its case this morning after calling two witnesses in the rape trial of former NFL placekicker Tony Zendejas.

The physician who examined the alleged victim the day after Zendejas allegedly raped her took the witness stand first this morning in Pomona Superior Court.

Malinda Wheeler, owner of Forensic Nurse Specialists, testified that the alleged victim had two tears to her vagina and two tears to her anus that were consistent with drug-induced sexual assault.

One of the anal tears was "very unusual and very significant," with a blood clot on it indicating the tear had caused bleeding, Wheeler testified.

"It's very significant, it's very deep, it's very large," Wheeler testified.

Prosecutors accused Zendejas, 48, of drugging the woman with GHB or a similar date-rape drug on Jan. 25, 2008 at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant in San Dimas, then raping and sodomizing her at a nearby Red Roof Inn.

Zendejas has pleaded not guilty to four felonies, and his attorneys maintain the sex Zendejas and the woman had was consensual.

After Wheeler's testimony, which lasted from about 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. this morning, Deputy District Attorney Rouman Ebrahim called to the witness stand a Los Angeles County Sheriff's detective who posed as a Realtor and secretly taped a conversation with Zendejas.

The detective, Liza Vera, said she met Zendejas for lunch at a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant in Brea on May 22, 2008. She initially met Zendejas during visits to his San Dimas restaurant, assuming an identity as a real estate agent from the San Diego area, she testified.

During their lunch conversation, recorded portions of which were played in court, the detective asked Zendejas about his sexual encounter with the alleged victim in the case.

In the conversation, Zendejas repeatedly says "I knocked her out," but never appears to make an explicit admission that he drugged her. His attorneys said before the trial that he was defending or bragging about his sexual performance.

During his cross examination, James, Reiss, Zendejas's lead defense attorney, implied Zendejas meant the alleged victim was "knocked out by the sex."

One of the exchanges from the lunch conversation follows:

-- Zendejas: I gave her a couple of drinks; likes her little red drinks; she's hammered.

-- Vera: We were, we were calling them Tony's special.

-- Zendejas: That's what they always want so I get them a couple of those, loosen them up a little bit.

-- Vera: And then you don't need to ask for permission; you just get them going and then ...

-- Zendejas: They're done.

-- Vera: Done. Nothing wrong with that.

-- Zendejas: Putty in my hands.

After Vera's testimony, Ebrahim rested his case, and the defense called as their first witness a self-described regular at Zendejas Mexican Restaurant who was at the restaurant the night Zendejas allegedly drugged the woman.

The man, Culver City police Lt. Carlos Reynosa, said he saw the alleged victim with her hands "all over" Zendejas.

"Basically she was all over him, smothering him with kisses, grabbing his buttocks and his groin," Reynosa testified.

Reynosa said he goes to the restaurant three to four times a week and considers Tony Zendejas and other Zendejas family members his friends.

Reynosa said the alleged victim "didn't appear to be intoxicated at all" from the time he first noticed her with Zendejas, to the time he saw the woman and Zendejas leave the restaurant together at about midnight or 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 26.

"She was obviously attracted to (Zendejas)," Reynosa testified.

Zendejas' defense is set to call more witness when the lunch break ends at 1:30 p.m.