MADONNA TESTIFIES IN COURT\Singer says threats made her fearful.

Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer

After weeks of trying to avoid a subpoena, pop star Madonna reluctantly faced the man accused of stalking her, testifying Wednesday how his threats left her plagued by nightmares and fearful of making public appearances.

The entertainer - known for her tough image - rarely looked at Robert Dewey Hoskins. She spoke solemnly, blinking rapidly, and pausing in midsentence during her first moments on the witness stand.

"How do you feel about being here in court with Mr. Hoskins across from you?" asked prosecutor Rhonda Saunders.

"Sick to my stomach," Madonna answered. "I feel incredibly disturbed that the man who repeatedly threatened my life is sitting across from me, and I feel we are making his fantasies come true."

"And that disturbs you?" Saunders continued.

"Yes," Madonna answered.

Hoskins looked in her direction on occasion, but he generally sat slumped in his chair.

Hoskins, 38, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of stalking, making terrorist threats and assault. Authorities contend that he invaded Madonna's Hollywood Hills property, where he was shot by one of her bodyguards in May.

Madonna - who testified for 90 minutes - was the first witness called by the prosecution in the case, and her movements in and around the Criminal Courts Building were shielded from media and paparazzi.

Without success, Madonna's attorney - Nicholas DeWitt - asked Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor to have Hoskins removed from the courtroom and let him watch via closed-circuit TV.

Madonna showed up in court after being threatened with a $5 million arrest warrant if she didn't appear.

No cameras were allowed in court.

Madonna stepped into Connor's courtroom wearing black high-heeled shoes and a tight black knit suit. Her hair was pulled back in a French twist. Her facial makeup was muted.

She identified herself as Madonna Ciccone, and she described her occupation as entertainer.

Though feisty and perhaps circumspect during parts of her cross-examination, the singer appeared nervous at the start of her testimony - jumbling dates and events.

She took a few deep breaths and later, more clearly, testified how the defendant hopped the fence surrounding her Hollywood Hills home.

During one incident, Madonna said, she was returning from a bike ride with her personal trainer when she rode through the gate of her home and came within two feet of Hoskins.

"I saw a man who looked very strange," she said. "He looked like he was homeless. He was very dirty. . . . He was staring at me in a very strange way."

The look, she said, was intense, deranged and creepy.

"I actually was quite disturbed by the look in his eyes," she said.

Several minutes later, she testified, her bodyguard came rushing up to tell her that the same homeless-looking man had buzzed the intercom and threatened to kill Madonna and anyone who got in his way.

The bodyguard, according to Madonna, suggested that she get in the house immediately for her own safety. He eventually chased the man away.

Hoskins, Madonna said, probably had not recognized her that day because she wore sweats, a baseball cap, sunglasses and no makeup.

But in the wake of that incident, and before a final confrontation that led to Hoskins' arrest, she testified of an emotional toll.

Madonna said she avoided public appearances, put her home up for sale and talked to psychiatrists about her fears. She said she wrestles with recurring nightmares, including one in which the man hides inside her home, comes out and tries to kill her.

Madonna testified she was in Florida in May when Hoskins is accused of entering the singer's property, where he was shot.

Prosecutors contend that the man lunged at the bodyguard, trying to choke him and gain control of the guard's holstered gun.

Deputy Public Defender John Myers said in opening statements that his client is a homeless man who wrote harmless notes of wanting Madonna as his wife. Even if threats were made, he said, they were empty and don't merit the charges filed.

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PHOTO

John Myers, left, attorney for stalking suspect Robert Dewey Hoskins, speaks to the media outside the Criminal Courts Building. Associated Press