Testimony by Sun Bonds provided a dramatic start Wednesday to the second phase of the couple's high-stakes divorce trial before San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Judith Kozloksi.

Kozloski has already upheld a 1987 prenuptial agreement in which Barry and Sun Bonds agreed to keep their financial assets separate.

Sun Bonds hopes to show that the behavior of the San Francisco Giants slugger kept her from making a living, a factor that can be considered in setting permanent spousal support.

Under questioning by her attorney, Lawrence Stotter, Sun Bonds described several incidents that depicted one of baseball's highest paid players as an egotistical wife-beater who wanted to control her life.

Sun Bonds, citing an incident she said had happened in 1989 when the couple lived in Pennsylvania, told the judge that her husband had become enraged when she told him she wanted to obtain a cosmetologist license.

"He came after me and pulled me down on the carpet and kicked me while I was on the floor," she said.

At the time, she said, she was pregnant with their now 5-year-old son, Nikolai.

Robert Nachsin, an attorney for Barry Bonds, said in his opening statement that he would discredit Sun Bond's allegations with testimony from witnesses, including household employees.

"Mrs. Bonds felt that the only way she could win in this proceeding was to embarrass Mr. Bonds," Nachsin said.

"We will show Mr. Bonds supported Mrs. Bonds financially and emotionally and paid for her (cosmetology) school. . . . She made the decision after the children were born not to work."

Sun Bonds, a native of Sweden, said that her husband had told her it was her job to be a mother and homemaker and that his own mother had given up a career as a model.

Eventually, Sun Bonds said, she stopped talking about having a cosmetology career, a goal she was pursuing when she met Bonds while working as a Montreal bartender. Bonds was then an up-and-coming player with the Pittsburgh Pirates; today, he is in the third year of a six-year $43 million contract with the Giants.

Sun Bonds described several other alleged fights. After one incident in which she said her husband choked her, she said she had called police - but had not filed a report.

"Barry was this big man that was loving me one minute, and the next minute he was beating me up," she said. "I was scared. I didn't know what he would do after" the police left.

According to court records, Sun Bonds called Atherton police in August 1993, claiming Barry Bonds had hit her and pushed her down some stairs. He claimed she had attacked him. No charges were filed against either party after a review of the case by the district attorney.<

This article appeared on page A - of the Examiner