FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The lawyer for teacher Beth Friedman, the defendant in a statutory rape trial now in its fourth day, suggested Friday that the mother of the alleged victim was in on a scheme to get money and gifts from Friedman.

Donald Vaden, now 19, claims he had consensual sexual intercourse with Friedman when he was a 15-year-old student in her study hall at Silver Lakes Middle School in North Lauderdale. Friedman, 42, denies the allegation, which her defense lawyer charged was made up by Vaden in an effort to continue receiving gifts and money.

On Friday, attorney David Bogenschutz charged for the first time that Vaden's mother, 39-year-old Grisel Vaden, also wanted to keep the money flowing in. He suggested that Grisel Vaden did not care about the true nature of her son's relationship with Friedman until the teacher stopped showering her son with cash and gifts.

Friedman in court Friday

Donald Vaden testified Monday and Tuesday that Friedman gave him $1,200 a week for pocket money as well as jewelry, clothes and trips to amusement parks during their 18-month sexual relationship.

"You were hoping something like this would happen, weren't you?" Bogenschutz asked, referring to the sex allegations.

"Are you sick?" Grisel Vaden shot back during the most-dramatic exchange of Friday's testimony. "You are a sick individual."

Bogenschutz tried unsuccessfully to get Grisel Vaden to say that she had given Friedman a "skimpy" powder-blue nightgown when Vaden and her two sons were living under Friedman's roof between August 1998 and April 1999.

"Why would you give her something this skimpy?" Bogenschutz asked, holding up the exhibit.

Vaden said she could not remember if she had given the nightgown to Friedman as a gift, but added that she did not see anything wrong with doing that.

"You really didn't care what she looked like around your son, did you?" Bogenschutz said.

"Frankly, I didn't," Vaden testified.

Bogenschutz established that Vaden knew that Friedman, whom she considered a close friend, came from a wealthy family. Grisel Vaden acknowledged that she knew Friedman had purchased her son an older Chevrolet Caprice for $1,500; half of the car's cost was a birthday present from Friedman, but Donald Vaden was supposed to pay her the other $750 and never did.

Bogenschutz suggested that Grisel Vaden enjoyed some of the benefits of the "gravy train" provided by Friedman and wanted it to continue. It was only when the gifts stopped coming as frequently in 1999, Bogenschutz seemed to be arguing, that Grisel Vaden suddenly started taking seriously what her son had been telling her about his sexual relationship with Friedman.

"What gravy train? There wasn't a gravy train," Grisel Vaden insisted during her testimony.

Grisel Vaden and her now ex-husband, James Vaden, made a formal complaint with police on June 12, 1999. Friedman was arrested that August and now faces up to 76 years in prison if convicted of unlawful sexual contact with a minor and other crimes.

Friedman, wearing a yellow sweater over a brown-print blouse and skirt that extended to her beige pumps, took copious notes on a yellow legal pad. She has been passing notes to her lawyers throughout the trial.

According to Grisel Vaden, Friedman called her from school the day after the police complaint was filed. A reporter had contacted Friedman about the complaint and the teacher, who has since resigned, wanted to know what was going on, Vaden said.

"Basically she acted like she didn't know anything. I told her that I turned her in," Vaden testified. Friedman said, according to Vadan, "Well, you're going to help me get out of this, aren't you?"

But Bogenschutz pressed Vaden to admit that she had no evidence of the affair other than her son's comments. "It is a fact. isn't it. that you never saw any sex, never saw any touching, never saw any affectionate feelings? Isn't that correct?" he asked. "That's correct," Vaden replied.

The prosecutor, on redirect, moved quickly to undo some of the damage.

"Did you pimp out your kid so you could live in Beth Friedman's house?" prosecutor Stacey Honowitz asked Grisel Vaden.

"I'd never do that ... it was never about her money," Vaden replied.

Friedman's neighbor testifies

The prosecution's third witness, Dorry Press, testified Friday afternoon that she had concerns about a relationship between Donald Vaden and Friedman from the moment she met him in October 1998. Press, who was Friedman's neighbor, said Friedman talked about Vaden all the time before Press met him.

Press

"She said, "Wait until you see him again. He's so gorgeous. He's so sexy, you're going to die, Dorry.'"

Press, who is home a lot because of various ailments, said she would often see Vaden driving Friedman's jeep while she was walking her dog. She testified that she confronted Friedman numerous times about her suspicions.

"I'd say to her, 'Beth, what is going on here? This is a little more than tutoring or mentoring. It doesn't look kosher.'"

Friedman always denied that she was having a sexual relationship with Vaden, but often said she thought he was "hot," Press said. Friedman had assured Press that she would wait until Vaden was 18 before she slept with him, the witness said.

Press testified that she only witnessed physical contact between the two once, one night in winter 1999 at about 3 a.m.

"I saw them in the swimming pool together. They were bear-hugging, face-to-face in an embrace."

The trial is being broadcast by Court TV.