Trial Continues for Actor Who Allegedly Sold Faulty Playa del Rey Condo

By City News Service

The daughter of actor-director Mario Van Peebles today blamed a faulty memory for her initial denial that she wrote a response to a celebrity website posting about her father being sued because of alleged defects in a condominium he sold.

Maya Van Peebles' comments that the floor in the unit was sloped were published along with remarks by others who also submitted emails to TMZ.com. in reaction to the story. But in the first of two depositions taken in 2010 in connection with the litigation, she denied making the statements.

Asked by her father's lawyer, Eric Meller, to explain the denial, she replied, "Just because I had forgotten about it. I was taken by surprise and didn't know what to do."

Maya Van Peebles' testimony came as the non-jury trial of Adel Bebawy's lawsuit continued before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven Kleifield. The plaintiff, an attorney, alleges that after he acquired Mario Van Peebles' waterfront condominium in 2007 for $1.37 million, he discovered the floor had a severe slope and that there was significant mold in a bathroom.

Van Peebles, 56, has denied any wrongdoing, as have Coldwell Banker and Van Peebles' listing broker, Debra Berman, as well as the Waterfront Homeowners Association.

On Tuesday, Maya Van Peebles acknowledged when questioned by Bebawy attorney Darren McBratney that her deposition testimony was false.

"Lying about it, of course, was wrong," the 20-year-old woman said. "I shouldn't have done it."

The actor's oldest child confirmed she wrote part of a letter from Meller that was sent to Bebawy's lawyers prior to her second deposition. In the letter, she explained her false deposition testimony by saying she thought the March 2009 posting on TMZ.com was "being used as something negative to hurt my father and I freaked out."

Maya Van Peebles said today that she corrected her testimony in her second deposition by admitting she wrote the comment on TMZ.com., in which she was critical of Bebawy, saying he should have reviewed the contract before suing her father.

She stated in her TMZ.com email that she never saw mold in the unit, a position she repeated during her trial testimony. She also said that although her remarks on the celebrity website were in response to the posting about the lawsuit, she also was angry with another person who wrote and made particularly negative remarks about her father.

The other person, identified as Xcalibur, expressed surprise that Van Peebles still had a viable acting career and could afford an expensive condominium.

"I bet he's homeless now ...," Xcalibur wrote.

Maya Van Peebles said the comment did not reflect "the type of character my father and my family have. If you say something negative, my father will say three positive things"

She said she was 16 at the time of her comment on the TMZ.com posting. In it, she accidentally described Bebawy as a female, but said that was how the celebrity website referred to the plaintiff. She also said that although she never saw any slope in the floor of the condo, she based her assumption it existed on what her father told her about his contract with Bebawy and on the contents of the TMZ.com article.