By Marisa Kendall, From The Recorder

SAN FRANCISCO — Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Randy Komisar told jurors Tuesday that the much-discussed book of poetry he gave Ellen Pao for Valentine’s Day in 2007 was an innocent token, not a sexual advance.

Komisar testified he gave Pao the book because she had given him two “very nice” gifts the prior Christmas.

“I know Ellen was quick to take slight and see the negative,” Komisar said, glancing over to the plaintiff’s table where Pao was sitting, “and I was concerned that she would see I wasn’t reciprocating.”

Pao, a former junior partner at the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm claims the gift, “The Book of Longing” by Leonard Cohen, was inappropriate because it includes erotic poetry and sexual drawings, and she used it as a cornerstone in her $16 million gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins in 2012. The firm fired Pao later that year, and has claimed she didn’t have the skills to succeed as an investing partner.

Komisar, who took the stand as a defense witness during the fourth week of trial in San Francisco Superior Court, said the gift was purchased for Pao by his wife. The book, written during Cohen’s stay in a Zen monastery, was intended to speak to Pao’s expressed interest in Buddhism, he said.

Pao had given Komisar a book and a small Buddha statue for Christmas, and he decided to give her a present on the next holiday, which happened to be Valentine’s Day.

“I made it a practice of giving out small gifts, tokens of appreciation, on Valentine’s Day,” Komisar said.

Kleiner Perkins’ lead lawyer, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Lynne Hermle, showed jurors the inscription Komisar wrote in the book: “To Ellen, A taste of Dharma Bum to remind that the Dharma breathes in and out and is nothing special. Best, Randy.” Komisar told the jury he was referencing the Jack Kerouac novel The Dharma Bums, and trying to show Pao that Dharma, the Buddhist theory of truth, is accessible to everyone.

Pao never told him the book made her uncomfortable, Komisar said, and they remained friendly after the exchange. Pao continued to drop by his office for various reasons, including to talk about her ex-husband, or to show off her new cowboy boots.

During cross-examination Pao’s lawyer, Alan Exelrod of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, showed the jury two drawings from the book, both depicting the back of a naked woman.

“Your testimony is you gave Ms. Pao the book without looking at any of the contents whatsoever?” he asked.

“I opened the book to sign it,” Komisar said. “That was it.”

Komisar also denied Pao’s claim that he invited her to dinner in 2007 while his wife was out of town. Komisar testified instead he heard Pao had been working over the weekend near his home, and remarked that they should have had dinner.

Pao claims Komisar and others pushed her out of a Kleiner Perkins investment that she initially helped get off the ground. She testified last week she was denied a seat on the board of San Francisco’s RPX Corp. because she was pregnant.

On Tuesday Komisar, who assumed the board seat as Kleiner Perkins’ representative, provided a different explanation for why Pao had been sidelined from working with RPX.

Komisar testified that Pao had walked into his office and told him the other members on the RPX board “hated” him. At the time Komisar had been disagreeing with board members over whether RPX, a company focused on reducing the risk of patent litigation, was ready for an initial public offering.

“I was stunned,” Komisar said. He brought the issue to a managing partner because “this had now risen to a level that was quite concerning to me. A junior partner was trying to remove me from the board.”

The solution was to pull Pao off RPX in 2010 and tell her to stop attending board meetings, Komisar said.

He elaborated later in answer to a written question from a juror: “I felt that it was a betrayal of our relationship for her to politic with partners behind my back to remove me,” Komisar said. “I just felt that was unforgivable.”

Under questioning by Exelrod, Komisar conceded he never spoke to the other board members about their concerns before pulling Pao out of RPX. And he never prodded Pao about why she felt the board members hated him.

Exelrod suggested instead of addressing the issue, Komisar retaliated against Pao.

“You savaged her on her performance review, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Absolutely not,” Komisar responded. But he agreed he wrote that he was disinclined to work with Pao on future projects.

“You made her suffer, didn’t you?” Exelrod asked. Judge Harold Kahn, presiding over the case, sustained an objection from the defense before Komisar could answer.

IMAGE: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

For more on this story go to: http://www.therecorder.com/id=1202720881496/Kleiner-Partner-Defends-Racy-Valentines-Day-Gift#ixzz3UjpmY4eK