Sharon Stone Defends the Safety of Her Backyard

Actress testifies in lawsuit brought by worker who says he fell on her property

By Natalie Finn Jul 11, 2011 11:00 PMTags
Sharon StoneBrian To/FilmMagic

Sharon Stone sets traps for men in her movies, not in real life.

The Basic Instinct siren testified in a Los Angeles courtroom today that she has always had a chain-link fence ringing her backyard, implying that a man who's suing her never could have fallen through a broken wooden lattice and plunged into her neighbor's yard.

But that will be for a jury to decide...

Non-actor Peter Krause filed a negligence lawsuit against Stone in 2008, stating that he suffered "severe and permanent injuries" while wiring speakers on her property in 2006. He claims that he tripped and grabbed onto a lattice, which then crumbled, leaving nothing to break his fall as he tumbled down a steep drop into the adjacent yard.

Krause's camp alleges that the actress had a more secure perimeter installed after his accident, a claim Stone denies.

Calling herself an "avid gardener" who examines her property often, Stone testified today that there has never been a lattice, only a chain-link fence, around the southern perimeter of her yard, where the accident allegedly took place.

"It was the same as when we moved in" in 1995, she said, proffering a picture taken at her son Rowan's second birthday in 2002 that shows a fence in the background, as well as multiple cell-phone photos she said she took yesterday.

"I wanted to demonstrate the truth in fact of the appearance of my fence," Stone, wearing a navy pantsuit and no makeup except for red lipstick, said.

"That would not be my property," she replied when Krause's attorney showed her a photo of a retaining wall with a lattice in front of it. Stone also testified that she had no firsthand knowledge that Krause was indeed injured on her property.

Asked if she ever warned people about the drop-off on the other side of the fence, the actress said, "No."

Krause, who claims he suffered a knee injury that limited his job prospects, is asking for at least $35,000 in damages.

—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum