A 31-year-old man testified yesterday that he blacked out after he was given a drink and then was raped by nightclub owner Jack Law at his home last year.

The man told a Circuit Court jury that the next he knew, he was being sexually assaulted in Law's hot tub at his home atop Sierra Drive, but was helpless to stop it.

"Your body is frozen," he said.

He blacked out again, but regained consciousness enough to realize that he was being sexually assaulted two other times — once next to the hot tub and later in Law's bed, the man said.

Law, 59, went on trial in Circuit Judge Richard Perkins' courtroom yesterday on three counts of second-degree sex assault. Each count carries a prison term of up to 10 years. His attorney says Law is "absolutely innocent."

Law is a well-known figure for his community work and as the owner of Wave Waikiki, which closed last month, and the popular gay-oriented Hula's Bar & Lei Stand in Waikiki.

He is accused of giving the man a drink laced with a "date-rape" drug that rendered him "physically helpless" or "mentally incapacitated" and then having sex with him the early morning of May 21 last year.

In her opening, City Deputy Prosecutor Lucianne Khalaf said the drug left the man unable to stop the sexual assault.

She said no traces of the drug could be found when the man was tested the next day, but said medical testimony will show that "date-rape" drugs mixed with alcohol could produce the blackouts.

Todd Eddins, Law's attorney, portrayed the man as a troubled golddigger suffering from bipolar and depressive disorders. The man, Eddins said, went along with the sex.

"He has an opportunity here in his view to sock it to a guy who is a self-made man and to get rich off of this," Eddins told the jury.

It's undisputed that the man and Law knew each other and the man gave Law a ride home.

The man, who testified he is not gay, said he had about a glass and a half of wine earlier. He said he was given a clear drink prepared by Law.

"It was a sudden blackout," he told Khalaf.

He said he couldn't stop Law when he realized they were engaging in sex.

"There is no way to think," he said. "Your mind is just watching what is going on."

He said he called a rape hotline the next day after he realized he had been raped.

"It was almost like I was sleeping the whole time," he testified.

Eddins said Law is a law-abiding citizen and a contributing member of the community. He is a founding member of the Life Foundation assisting AIDs victims and was a member of the Hawai'i Civil Rights Commission from 1994 to 2002, the lawyer said.

On the other hand, the complainant had expensive tastes and flashy clothes, Eddins said. He was receiving disability payments from the Veterans Administration, but did not have enough money for the lifestyle he wanted, Eddins said.

After reporting the rape, the man hired a lawyer "to fulfill his desire to live the high life without any work," Eddins said.

Eddins said Law gave the man a drink of vodka and water and "nothing else," that Law made a pass at the man, who responded and the two had sex.

"There was never any protestation there was any wrong," Eddins said.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.