The depositions were taken in January and filed with Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in February.
Mendte said in the deposition that he had talked with Lane about being careful that their friendship "not progress to one that is physically affectionate."
Yet the two kissed and had physical contact several times, Mendte said, first in Lane's home, when at one point after kissing, Lane went into her bedroom and came out wearing only her bra on top - " . . . so she wasn't naked but she didn't have a top on. And then I went over and we rolled around on her bed for a little bit. . . . "
She put his hand on her breast, he said in the deposition, as he drove her in a car. Another time in a car, he said, she "straddled me and started kissing me. . . . "
In Lane's deposition, Mendte was the first to pucker up. The initial time was when Mendte went to her condominium to drop off a Christmas tree, and then kissed her on the lips, Lane said. He made advances several other times as well, she said.
Lane said warning flags that Mendte wanted more than a collegial relationship included an $800 platinum necklace he gave her one Christmas when she gave him a $60 coffeemaker.
She said Mendte also once gave her a toy "frog dressed up as a prince, and it was supposed to symbolize him, because he knew I didn't find him attractive."
Lane was "pretty freaked out" when he gave her a piece of decorative glass etched with "L and A, Soulmates." She reacted gingerly, she said, because she was "a bit afraid of Larry," she said in the deposition, calling him a "sociopathic narcissist."
Lawyers for Mendte and Lane each said their client gave the truthful account in their depositions. The lawsuit is scheduled to go to a jury trial May 23.
Contact staff writer Carolyn Davis at 215-854-4214, cdavis@phillynews.com, or twitter.com/carolyntweets.
