NEW YORK — A woman who spent nearly 12 hours tied naked to her bed with writer Peter Braunstein watching over her described Monday how she tried to pacify her captor with idle conversation about the fashion industry and promises not to call police.

"I thought if I kept him even-keel, it would be better for me," the 36-year-old calmly testified Monday in Braunstein's trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. "I knew he either had to leave or get rid of me."

Braunstein, who has pleaded not guilty to a 13-count indictment stemming from the attack, slouched in his seat during her testimony. His lawyers claim he suffers from a mental illness, which prevented him from forming the intent to commit a crime.

The victim testified that her nightmare began at about 6 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2005, when she heard banging on her apartment door and the voice of someone who identified himself as a firefighter. After she let him in, the woman said he ordered her to the ground with a gun and knocked her out with chloroform.

She said she awoke about two hours later in her bed with her extremities tied to pieces of furniture. She was naked except for a pink thong and a pair of high heels.

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Between his gropes, the witness said, Braunstein engaged her in conversation about relationships, his lagging career in the fashion industry and his inability to bring his play about Andy Warhol to the stage.

A prosecutor told jurors Monday that that the struggling writer was looking for attention and revenge when he dressed up as a firefighter, broke into the apartment and sexually abused the woman, whose name is being withheld by Court TV.

Braunstein set two small fires outside the victim's apartment as a pretense to get the woman to open her door, Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal said.

"His acts were the result of anger and his need for revenge against his ex-girlfriend, against the fashion industry, against all those who had failed to appreciate him," Rosenthal said during her opening statement. "He was angry and it was time to strike back."

The victim, who worked in the offices of Fairchild Publications at the same time as the defendant, said she was unable to identify her captor as a colleague until he began dropping clues specific to the industry.

"How does it feel to be photographed for the Sunday Times Style Section?" the woman recalled Braunstein asking her.

She maintained composure as she described to a hushed courtroom how she feigned unconsciousness when her captor used chloroform on her five more times. During one of those episodes, she said, he blindfolded her before cutting off her panties, slinging her leg over his shoulders and assaulting her with his fingers.

In the background, the woman said, she heard the whirring of a camcorder.

Several hours later, Braunstein fell asleep next to the woman. He left around 6:30 the next morning with the woman's Louis Vuitton carry-on bag, a fur coat and $800 on cash.

Jurors paid close attention as the witness identified the items, along with samples of the rope used to tie her, which were recovered later in a Queens storage facility that was rented in Braunstein's name.

Rosenthal said that Braunstein, who was fired from his reporting post at Women's Wear Daily in 2002, began planning the Halloween 2005 incident as early as January, when he went online to buy the chemical components of the smoke bombs that he used in the apartment building. Samples of those materials were also recovered in the storage facility with the victim's possessions.

Braunstein pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of arson, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, sexual abuse and assault. After a month-long manhunt, he was arrested in Memphis in December 2005 after stabbing himself in the neck.

Without disputing the details of the incident, a lawyer for Braunstein, 43, said he suffered from an unspecified mental illness that precluded him from forming a conscious intent to commit the crimes.

"This trial isn't about what happened on Halloween 2005; this trial is about why, why it happened," defense lawyer Celia Gordon said in her opening remarks. "Why did Peter Braunstein spiral so far out of control that he reached such depths on Oct. 31, 2005?"

Gordon said that Braunstein's brain "broke" under pressures from a succession of defeats, including the loss of his job, his girlfriend and his play.