MARTINEZ, Calif. — Murder defendant Susan Polk's direct examination of her son was abruptly cut short Thursday when Polk repeatedly interrupted the judge, criticized the judge for talking over her objections, and refused to abide by court rulings.

"The next thing out of your mouth better be a question," Judge Laurel Brady told Polk after several warnings and a break to give the defendant time to control herself.

"I object!" Polk continued.

Brady made good on her promise. The defendant's questioning of her son Eli Polk, 20, the only one of her three children to testify in her defense, was suspended.

Polk has motioned for a mistrial countless times since testimony began March 7 at her first-degree murder trial. On Thursday, she accused the judge and prosecutor of conspiring to "engineer a guilty verdict."

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Polk, 48, is on trial for stabbing her 70-year-old psychologist husband Dr. Felix Polk to death with a paring knife in October 2002. Polk claims she acted in self-defense and that her husband was physically and mentally abusive during their 30-year relationship.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Sequeira began what proved to be a testy cross-examination of Eli, who sneered at his questioner while calling him "sir," as his mother objected more than 30 times in the first hour.

Polk played the role of defendant, attorney and protective mother as she watched her son on the stand.

Many of her objections had a personal, rather than legal, underpinning: "Objection! Sarcastic and nasty!" "Objection! Randomly ambiguous and unintelligible!"

"Objection! He is yelling at my son and he better stop right now!" She blurted out when Sequeira's rapid-fire questions seemed to unsettle the witness

"He is a witness in a homicide trial," the judge said.

"He's also my son!" Polk shot back, laughing over her own outburst.

The judge took a short recess, leaving the bench as Polk continued to rant about the "bully DA."

"What's he going to do? Arrest me for something else?" Polk taunted.

Sequeira did not reply.

Polk faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of her husband's murder. Cross-examination of her son continues Friday.

'It takes two people to conspire'

Sequeira took issue with Eli's characterization of his loving relationship with his mother, pointing to her own diaries and police reports in which she told authorities that her son was a drug dealer, that he was uncontrollable, and that he used profanities during their heated disputes over the years.

"Objection! There's no proof I ever said he was a drug dealer," Polk said, arguing that the police reports were hearsay and inaccurate.

"Mr. Polk, the bottom line — is it not true that it doesn't matter whether it's one of her children, her husband, her mother, a friend ... if they cross your mother, she's likely to make up something about them?" Sequeira asked.

"No, that's not true," Eli said.

Sequeira also accused Eli of "cooking up" different versions of the truth about a March 2001 domestic disturbance call to the Polk family home.

Eli initially told police that his mother kicked his father.

"I did what my father told me to do," Eli said.