NFL draft: Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud primed to extend Southern California’s quarterback legacy

• April 26, 2023

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Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud returned to their roots to complete their preparations for the NFL draft, where their names are expected to be among the first called Thursday during the opening day of the festive event.

The duo trained in recent weeks in Southern California’s fertile cradle for quarterbacks prospects, not far from their old high school campuses of Mater Dei and Rancho Cucamonga, respectively.

Young and Stroud worked under the watchful eye of private quarterback coach John Beck of Huntington Beach-based 3DQB, an elite training group. Beck also coaches at the same high school that produced the last Southern California quarterback selected in the top three of the NFL draft – Sam Darnold out San Clemente High and USC.

You think you’ve heard this story before? Try again.

Two Southern California quarterbacks with impressive collegiate credentials could be selected among the first four selections in Kansas City, Mo.

Image if John Elway or Carson Palmer had SoCal running mates at the very top of the draft in 1983 or 2003 when they were No. 1 draft picks after rising from Granada Hills and Santa Margarita. That’s what Young and Stroud appear on the cusp of accomplishing.

“It’s awesome and definitely enforces the belief that the SoCal region does the best job producing quarterbacks,” said national recruiting analyst Greg Biggins of 247Sports, who has covered Young and Stroud since high school. “I’m not surprised at all. We had Bryce rated as the No. 1 QB nationally and C.J. was No. 3, and both were predicted to be first-round picks.”

Young, the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner at Alabama, is projected to be selected No. 1 overall by the Carolina Panthers, according to one of the latest mock drafts at NFL.com.

Stroud, a Heisman Trophy finalist at Ohio State, is projected to be the next QB selected at No. 4 by the Indianapolis Colts.

The SoCal products polished their craft training with Beck and 3DQB. The Huntington Beach-based group was co-founded by Adam Dedeaux, grandson of former USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux, and Tom House, the throwing specialist who has worked with Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Palmer among others.

Beck stressed efficiency and awareness while tutoring Young (5-10, 204) and Stroud (6-3, 214) for the NFL combine, their pro days and private workouts for teams.

“There’s a lot of things that both these guys do extremely well,” said Beck, who played quarterback at BYU and coaches QBs at San Clemente. “But they are different, not only from body type but to the way their bodies move. … and teams recognize that (for their schemes).”

“Bryce is extremely twitchy. Great sense of space. He has like that sixth sense of what’s around him, so you see him more maneuverable in the pocket in trying to create lanes. He plays a lot like a point guard in basketball,” Beck added.

“C.J. has a bigger frame. If he is moving in the pocket, it’s for avoidance purposes to take off and run. … C.J. wants to come off a (shot)gun action and he wants to deliver a downfield shot to a deep crosser to somebody on an outlet. That’s what his strength is. He’s going to be able to stand in that pocket.”

Young’s lack of height has been heavily debated entering the draft, but Beck is confident how his protege views an evolving game.

“This is the relationship, size-wise, that he has to the game. It’s all he knows,” Beck said of Young, who grew up in Pasadena and played at Cathedral of Los Angeles before transferring to Mater Dei. “It used to be desired to have somebody 6-foot-4 stand back behind a big offensive line to deliver balls. It’s not like that anymore.”

“If you ever hear size come up, it’s more of a durability, not an ability, thing,” the coach added.

Young and Stroud will offer their future teams plenty of intangibles, too.

Dating to high school, Young is known for his composure, faith and close relationship with his father Craig. He also was the first Black starting QB at Mater Dei.

Stroud also stands up for his faith and became a gritty leader after his father Coleridge was sent to prison.

“When you see two guys who are at the front of the draft like C.J. and Bryce Young, you know this is a byproduct of the competition that we have in the CIF Southern Section,” said Rancho Cucamonga coach Brian Hildebrand, who coached against Stroud in high school while at Roosevelt.

“For two guys to come out of here who are from just miles apart from each other,” the coach added, “it’s awesome to see and you really pull for both guys.”

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​ Orange County Register 

NFL draft: Which UCLA players might get picked and when

• April 26, 2023

With the NFL draft beginning Thursday, here’s a look at where UCLA prospects can expect to be selected over the weekend.

Zach Charbonnet

Position: Running back

Year: Senior

Size: 6-foot, 214 pounds

Projections: Charbonnet isn’t talked about in most draft conversations because of the value placed on the position group, but he has been considered as a top five running back in this year’s draft. With only one or two running backs expected to go in the first round, Charbonnet may be considered a great value for a team on Day 2 of the draft and work himself into a starting role sooner rather than later.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson

Position: Quarterback

Year: Redshirt senior

Size: 6-2, 203 pounds

Projections: Thompson-Robinson’s stock has risen throughout the draft process after appearances at the East-West Shrine Bowl and the NFL draft combine. Thompson-Robinson has been mentioned as a Day 3 sleeper by draft pundits. He isn’t expecting to come in and start right away and believes joining the right system like the Eagles and Bengals could help further his development.

Atonio Mafi

Position: Offensive lineman

Year: Redshirt senior

Size: 6-3, 338 pounds

Projections: Mafi made a strong impression during the East-West Shrine Bowl with several highlights dominating defenders throughout the week surfacing on social media. His big frame and good hand placement could attract a team to take him in the 5th or 6th round.

Jake Bobo

Position: Wide receiver

Year: Redshirt senior

Size: 6-4, 206 pounds

Projections: Bobo isn’t afraid to use his size to his advantage when the ball is in the air and is an effective run blocker. He may not have the ideal speed for a receiver, but there’s the possibility a team could turn him into a pass-catching tight end if he’s willing to put on some weight. He has experience as a special teams returner and has the versatility that could help him become a late-round selection.

Jon Gaines II

Position: Offensive lineman

Year: Redshirt senior

Size: 6-4, 303 pounds

Projections: Gaines was developed into a versatile lineman at UCLA and helped anchor an offensive line that was a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award. He’ll likely be a guard or center at the NFL level and is expected to be an early Day 3 pick. He played in the NFLPA Bowl and the East-West Shrine Bowl.

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Kazmeir Allen

Position: Running back/receiver

Year: Redshirt junior

Size: 5-9, 175 pounds

Projections: Allen has elite speed and versatility could make him an attractive late-round prospect for NFL teams. He has played as a running back and receiver during his five years with the Bruins. He’s also served as a primary kick returner.

​ Orange County Register 

$15 million donation fuels UCLA effort to create debt-free education

• April 26, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Fueled by a $15 million donation, UCLA announced an effort Wednesday to raise funds for student scholarships as part of a larger goal of creating debt-free education by 2030 by removing the need for student loans.

The UCLA Affordability Initiative was unveiled thanks to a $15 million donation by real estate investor and UCLA graduate Peter Merlone.

“UCLA was founded on the notion that access to a top-tier education should be available to talented individuals of all backgrounds and financial means,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement. “Peter Merlone’s gift, and the UCLA Affordability Initiative as a whole, will help us preserve our ability to attract stellar students from across the state — and set them up for success after graduation.”

According to the university, traditional discussion of college affordability generally focuses on the cost of tuition, while overlooking ancillary costs such as housing, books, food, transportation and other expenses.

With Merlone’s donation, UCLA will grant four-year scholarships of about $20,000 — at $5,000 per year — to as many as 35 California resident students beginning next year. University officials said the money could dramatically reduce or eliminate the need for student loans.

“First, UCLA is working to create a better understanding of the true cost of college and how that challenge is typically met, in part, through student loans,” Gary Clark, UCLA’s interim vice provost of enrollment management and executive director of undergraduate admission, said in a statement. “Second, we’re seeking to provide an alternative to student loans. With enhanced scholarship support from philanthropists, we can reduce the financial pressure of obtaining a UCLA education and ensure UCLA is the first choice for all California students who receive offers of admission.”

Merlone, who earned his UCLA degrees in 1979, said in a statement that he attended the university “in a different era, when student loans were rarely seen.”

“I care about making an impact with my giving, and scholarships are the most direct means for me to do that,” he said. “I know others share my concern for California’s students, and I hope my actions inspire more people to step forward with scholarship support.”

More information on the initiative is available online at tinyurl.com/7m75ck62.

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We Build The Wall founder imprisoned for fraud

• April 26, 2023

By Jake Offenhartz | Associated Press

NEW YORK — The co-founder of a fundraising group linked to Steve Bannon that promised to help Donald Trump construct a wall along the southern U.S. border was sentenced to four years and three months in prison on Wednesday for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors.

Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both of his legs and an arm in the Iraq War, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Build the Wall campaign.

A co-defendant, financier Andrew Badolato, was also sentenced to three years for aiding the effort. He had also pleaded guilty. A third man involved in siphoning funds from the wall project, Colorado businessman Tim Shea, won’t be sentenced until June.

Kolfage and Badolato were also ordered to pay $25 million in restitution to the victims.

Absent from the case was Bannon, Trump’s former top political adviser. He was initially arrested aboard a luxury yacht and faced federal fraud charges along with the other men, but Trump pardoned him during his final hours in office.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought new, state charges against Bannon last year. He is awaiting trial. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses. Bannon has called the case “nonsense.”

Kolfage, Badolato and Shea were not pardoned by Trump, leaving them to face the prospect of years in prison.

Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched by Kolfage, who served as the public face of the effort as it raised more than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the public he would “not take a penny” from the campaign.

As money poured into the cause, Kolfage and his partner, Shea, turned to Bannon and Badolato for help creating a nonprofit, We Build the Wall, Inc. The four defendants then took steps to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, prosecutors said.

An attorney for Badolato, Kelly Kramer, described Bannon as “a leader and primary beneficiary” of the scheme, noting that his own client received a much smaller payout than the pardoned associate.

While prosecutors acknowledged that Badolato profited the least of the four defendants, they described him as the “connective tissue” between Kolfage and Bannon, helping to direct the kickbacks between the two parties.

Kolfage, 41, told Judge Analisa Torres that he was “remorseful, disgusted, humiliated.” He said he had not anticipated the scale of donations that would flood in for the cause and soon found himself drifting away from his initial goal, which he said was “putting a spotlight on the country’s broken immigration system.”

“I made a promise not to personally benefit and I broke that promise,” he said.

Torres said the defendants not only cheated their donors but contributed to a “chilling effect on civic participation” by tarnishing the reputation of political fundraising.

“The fraudsters behind We Build The Wall injured the body politic,” she said.

Kolfage received more than $350,000 in donor funds, which he spent on personal expenses that included boat payments, a luxury SUV and cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said in a court filing.Bannon was accused of taking more than $1 million through a separate nonprofit, then secretly paying some of it back to Kolfage.

Badolato, 58, and Shea also stole hundreds of thousands from fundraisers as well, prosecutors said.

As part of a plea deal, Kolfage and Badolato agreed not to challenge a sentence within the agreed-upon range: between four to five years for Kolfage and 3 1/2 to four years for Badolato.

An attorney for Kolfage previously argued that his client should avoid prison time given his lack of criminal history and severe disability.

Some sections of a border barrier were built by We Build the Wall on private lands, but the nonprofit is now defunct.

​ Orange County Register 

The pandemic brought a man closer to his neighbors — and inspired his album of songs about each of them

• April 26, 2023

Darcel Rockett | Chicago Tribune

When the world was isolating in pandemic bubbles, Alex Hardaway was channeling his inner Bob McGrath — the late “Sesame Street” character who sang the “People in Your Neighborhood” song.

Hardaway began a marathon music project — his first solo album, called “Be My Neighborhood,” where he wrote a song for each of his neighbors in his 15-unit Andersonville apartment building. The album debuted Thursday.

During the height of the pandemic, Hardaway, a longtime employee at Chicago’s Oiistar Japanese restaurant, had started doing maintenance work around the building to chip some money off his rent. That led him to meet all his fellow tenants. The 33-year-old graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University said a lot of his musical material comes from real life interactions.

“All the songs are kind of about me and my relationship with these people and my own psyche,” Hardaway said. “If you listen … you’ll hear that it’s a lot of second guessing and chewing on what interactions took place, or just a script of exact conversations that I just had with these people.”

It took the better part of three years for the Arlington, Texas, native to compose the music, write the lyrics, find professional orchestral musicians willing to play instruments on the album (for a modest fee) that matched the personality of each neighbor and get his work mastered by Adam Selzer, who has done audio production work for bands like the Lumineers, the Decemberists and She & Him. Hardaway played guitar, mandolin, bass, the ukulele and some percussion instruments while his girlfriend, Tuckie White, an actor, playwright and writer, sang backup vocals in a coat closet turned studio.

The result is a folksy album with 13 songs with names like: “Kasey and the Girl She Lives With,” “Keva and Miranda,” “Shea and Sheena” and “Seamus.”

Seamus is a neighbor who tends to nod his head in greeting to Hardaway without engaging in a traditional sense. His song’s lyrics include:

“What you do is like a magic trick

slipping away in the blink of an eye

waving hands while looking confused

Has got to work for you most of the time.”

Hardaway said the “Leanne and Anthony” song centers on how people can be socially awkward and how they can send mixed signals. “We both had young dogs that would play together and I just could not keep the ball in the air conversationally with them,” he said. “It was dead silence most of the time and I chewed about that for a long time. We’re fine now, but when I was writing these songs, I was feeling like I would see them four blocks down the street, and we would make eye contact and they would just take a bold right. Like they thought there’s no way we’re gonna walk into that dude.’”

The musical interludes entail many of the things people who share walls endure — everything from noise created when your ceiling is someone else’s floor and convincing those we live by to give us a chance to show we’re good people.

Neighbor Tim Dean’s song tells of the day his cat didn’t survive a tussle with a neighbor’s dog. Hardaway described the moment when he had to tell Dean about the incident and why calling out to his late cat was futile.

“I was like, ‘Hey, I know you’re Tim and I’m Alex. I have some awful news, my friend,’” Hardaway said. “He just sat down and was like, ‘I cannot believe that happened.’ I wanted to write a song about that moment, because it’s so hard when you have to deliver news like that to someone you don’t know.”

Dean, a clinical psychologist, said he’s honored to be included in the project. His two favorite tracks are “Shea and Sheena” and “Larry.”

“Larry’s a very sweet man,” Dean said. “He worked for the CTA for like 30 years. His song is about him retiring. Larry is the one that helped my cat the most, took my cat to the vet. … Larry’s the other protagonist in my song.”

Sheena Roque knew about Hardaway’s album but has since moved to Evanston with her fiance, Shea. She admits to being a “keeping to herself” kind of person, but when she met Hardaway, it was refreshing.

“He’s the most neighborly neighbor we’ve ever had,” she said. “My fiance and I are planning on getting married sometime this year. I would love to play the song at the wedding because it’s a song about us.”

Alex Hardaway, who wrote a song about all of his neighbors in his 15-unit apartment building during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, is seen outside his Andersonville home on April 5, 2023. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

“I got really lucky because I met some really great humans making this thing,” Hardaway said. “This project snowballed into something I never imagined and the cherry on top came when Adam Selzer stepped in for the finishing touches.”

Hardaway reached out to Selzer on a jobs website with a long email about his project. Selzer, a producer from Portland, Oregon, responded. He said it’s not common to get a project as interesting as what Hardaway put together. Hardaway and Selzer said Andy Shauf’s 2016 album, “The Party,” which describes the people seen at a party, is the only album they’re aware of that takes a similar bent. Hardaway said it got him thinking about how the mundane could be musical.

“I’ve always been really drawn to albums that have some sort of common thread and his idea of using his apartment and creating all these worlds for these characters just sounded really interesting to me,” Selzer said. “Each song had a different featured orchestral instrument. And I thought that was so cool because it had this whole separate identity with an instrument that was unique to that song compared to the rest of the album.”

“Be My Neighborhood” was an uphill climb for Hardaway. He would create four or five songs for each person and he would then have to choose which best represented them.

“It started out as a big exercise, but it became way bigger than I thought it could be,” he said. “I’m just a chatty Texas boy and I like to find out what’s going on with people. I don’t know why I’m very curious, but if more than my mom hears this record, I’ll be thrilled.”

Hardaway says we can afford a bit more “Hello, neighbor! How was your day?” in our lives.

“It’s good to reach out to people,” he said. “When I pass people on the street, I try to smile and say ‘Howdy’ or something like that. Over the pandemic, I started talking to this older man who lives down the street, a retired flight attendant and a wonderful piano player. I told him I heard him through the window. Two days later, I’m in his apartment and he’s playing piano for me, feeding me wine and we’re getting into a deep conversation about where we’re from. It’s so interesting what can happen if you just look up, look someone in the eyes and say hello. It can take you a lot of places.”

“Be My Neighborhood” is available on platforms like Bandcamp . Follow @cowboy_shoes for more information.

___

©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Ex-Fugees rapper Pras guilty in Chinese influence case

• April 26, 2023

By Holmes Lybrand | CNN

The rapper Pras Michel was found guilty in federal court in Washington on Wednesday of 10 criminal counts related to an international conspiracy reaching the highest levels of the US government.

The Grammy-winning artist and former member of the Fugees faced multiple counts over the failed conspiracy to help Malaysian businessman Jho Low and the Chinese government gain access to US officials, including former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Michel testified last week that Low paid Michel $20 million in 2012 in order to get a picture of himself with Obama and prosecutors alleged Michel funneled over $800,000 of that money to Obama’s campaign through a number of straw donors.

In his defense, Michel testified he never used the money at Low’s direction but instead saw it as his money which he could spend however he wanted.

“I could have bought 12 elephants with it,” he told the jury.

When Trump came to power in 2017 and investigations started to ramp up into Low and his alleged role in billions of dollars being embezzled from 1MBD, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Low went to Michel again, prosecutors alleged.

According to the prosecutors, Low directed over $100 million to Michel to help push the government, including Trump, to drop its investigation into Low. Prosecutors also say Michel advocated for the extradition of a Chinese dissident, Guo Wengui, on behalf of the Chinese government.

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Michel, however, testified he only tried to help Low find an attorney in the US and only told authorities about Guo because he thought he was a criminal. The former Fugees member also said the $100 million was for a media business he was starting and the investment wasn’t from Low.

Low, who was charged along with Michel, is believed to be in China. Guo has since been arrested and charged by the Justice Department with defrauding investors in an unrelated case.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

​ Orange County Register 

Colorado’s big snowpack powers massive ‘pulse’ of water being shot through Grand Canyon

• April 26, 2023

A huge amount of the water that flows down from Colorado’s snowy mountains into the West’s depleted Lake Powell reservoir is rocketing out of pipes this week to power a massive, simulated flood through the Grand Canyon — the first one in five years to try to revitalize canyon ecosystems the way nature once did.

Federal operators of the Glen Canyon Dam atop the Grand Canyon opened jets to begin this surge before sunrise Monday, sending what they described as “a pulse” of water whooshing through the Colorado River as it curves through the base of the canyon.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said they’ll maintain the surge until Thursday evening, ensuring a flow for 72 hours at 39,500 cubic feet per second of water.

This “High Flow Experiment” will require 270,000 acre-feet of water, federal officials said — enough to sustain more than half a million households for a year. By comparison, Denver Water typically captures 290,000 acre-feet of water, or more than 94 billion gallons, from rain and snow in Colorado over an entire year for city supplies.

The water gushing out of dam jets this week normally would have flowed gradually over the month of April out of Lake Powell into the river. Eventually, the water will end up in Lake Mead, the key supply for Arizona, California and Nevada.

Federal officials based their recent decision to allow the simulated floods on the relatively heavy high mountain snowpack this year along headwaters of the Colorado River, which begins west of Denver near Grand Lake.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest snow survey data this week showed snowpack in the upper Colorado River Basin at 129% of the 1991-2020 norm. Federal hydrologists have estimated 14.7 million acre-feet of water this summer will flow from Colorado, Wyoming and Utah into Lake Powell.

Since 2018, federal dam operators have declined to release water for simulated flood surges due to long-term drought and anxieties around record-low reservoir water levels, linked by scientists to climate warming and aridification of the Southwest — transformations that have left Lake Powell and Lake Mead less than a quarter full. Yet the nation’s 1992 Grand Canyon Protection Act requires efforts to ensure ecological health in the canyon, and officials established a program that includes simulated floods.

Federal officials this week declined to comment as water surged.

Dry times across the Southwest, and higher temperatures that over the past two decades reduced overall annual water in the Colorado River, have forced federal dam operators to prioritize keeping as much as possible in Lake Powell. Simulated floods for ecological purposes in the Grand Canyon became a casualty.

Last week, the environmental advocacy group American Rivers declared the Colorado River the nation’s most “endangered” river due to a lack of flooding. This week, American Rivers leaders applauded the surge as “a critical step” toward reviving the Grand Canyon.

A dead fish is seen near the shore in the low water levels on April 12, 2023, at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

“The damage to the ecosystems in the Grand Canyon has been substantial” over the past five years, American Rivers spokesman Sinjin Eberle said, describing harm caused by dams, which block sand and other sediments essential for aquatic life and canyon habitat.

Clear, colder-than-natural water released from the dam atop the canyon year after year “is eroding sand off beaches every day. Aquatic life and vegetation depend on those beaches. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of rocks and tamarisk,” Eberle said, referring to invasive shrubs that thrive and out-compete native species when dams lead to regularized water flows.

In Colorado, water policy officials declined to take a position on the simulated flood. But they acknowledged the environmental benefits in the canyon.

“The intent of this release is to pick up existing sediment in the canyon and deposit it downstream,” said Michelle Garrison, the state’s representative in a federal stakeholders advisory group that is part of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program.

Denver Water “is supportive of the environmental flow program” in the Grand Canyon, utility manager Jim Lochhead said, lauding the effort by multiple agencies that “come together to shift water releases — not increase overall releases — in order to mimic spring hydrology through the basin, which helps to improve beaches, sandbars and aquatic habitats.”

The Glen Canyon Dam holds back Colorado River water, which forms Lake Powell, seen from the air on April 15, 2023, in Page, Arizona. The flight for aerial photography was provided by LightHawk.(Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

In 1963, the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam atop the Grand Canyon disrupted essential natural processes and created Lake Powell. Sand and other sediments that for centuries moved downriver, scouring surfaces and creating beaches, suddenly were backed up on the reservoir side of that dam. And the regularized, steady flows of clear water, devoid of sediment, gradually are transforming the canyon.

During the simulated spring flood, U.S. Geological Survey scientists are monitoring the effects on fish populations and aquatic insects.

At the Grand Canyon Trust, officials devoted to protecting the river and canyon called on federal authorities to find a way to conduct future simulated floods — even during dry times.

“We long have prioritized hydropower. We long have prioritized water users. The environment is always the last priority,” the trust’s water advocacy director Jen Pelz said. “We need to figure out how to balance competing interests in a way that honors the environment.”

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E. Jean Carroll testifies: ‘Donald Trump raped me’

• April 26, 2023

By Lauren del Valle | CNN

Former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll took the stand Wednesday morning in her battery and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” Carroll testified. “He lied and shattered my reputation and I’m here to try to get my life back.”

Carroll is suing Trump for battery and defamation, alleging that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her years later when she went public with the allegations. Trump has repeatedly denied her allegations.

On the stand, Carroll recalled being “delighted” to be shopping with Trump, thinking it’d be a great story to tell friends.

“Well, it was such a funny New York scene,” Carroll said she thought at the time. “I love to give advice and here was Donald Trump asking me for advice about buying a present.”

She was not at all fearful of Trump, who was friendly and very funny. “I was absolutely enchanted, I could only think of it as a scene that is such a great story,” Carroll said.

The tone of their conversation was “very joshing and light” as they moved through the store.

Carroll was too focused on Trump to notice anyone else once they took the escalator from the first floor, she testified.

“I wasn’t looking, I was watching him and watching that I didn’t fall when the escalator hit the top.”

Carroll recalled she was probably flirting with Trump the whole time before the alleged assault, not thinking it was intimate or serious.

When the two made their way to the lingerie department, Carroll said the “comedy was escalating” but it never occurred to her that Trump might try to rape her.

Zeroing in on a sheer gray bodysuit, Trump told Carroll to try it on, she said. She jokingly told him he should try it on instead.

Carroll had no intention to try on the lingerie, she testified Wednesday, but followed Trump’s gesture into the dressing room thinking the moment could be a funny “Saturday Night Live” sketch.

“I didn’t picture anything about what was about to happen,” she said Wednesday. “That open door has plagued me for years because I just walked into it, walked in.”

Carroll recounted how Trump allegedly shoved her against the wall despite her struggles and eventually inserted his fingers and then his penis inside her.

She recalled the pain she felt in the back of her head and her vagina.

Growing emotional on the stand, Carroll took a long pause as her attorney asked what she did after Trump allegedly forced himself inside her.

“When you ask me what I did in that moment,” Carroll said, stuttering through tears, “I always think — I always think of why I walked in there to get myself in that situation. But I’m proud to say I did get out, I got my knee up and pushed him back.”

Testimony from former store manager

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Before Carroll took the stand, former Bergdorf Goodman Women’s Store Manager Cheryl Beall testified for under an hour as Carroll’s first witness in the civil trial.

Beall worked at the luxury department store for a decade until about 1998, and had an office on the sixth floor adjacent to the lingerie department where Carroll has alleged Trump raped her.

She walked the jury through a floor plan of the sixth floor from the relevant time period, describing the layout and fitting rooms on that floor as a wooden-walled room with walls that met the ceiling. The fitting room door locked automatically when closed, she testified.

Beall said the store had a practice of keeping fitting room doors closed while not in use, but they’d “regularly” be left open.

Bergdorf Goodman scheduled at least one person to monitor each department at all times but it was not uncommon that the area on the sixth floor would be left unmanned, especially on a slow evening, Beall said.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

​ Orange County Register