Legal war between Silicon Valley millionaire and ex-wife rages on

 Season 2 — now playing in civil courtroom No. 11 in downtown San Jose — is proving to be even more riveting and bizarre.

Once again, Ellena Bondesson, real estate mogul Clyde Berg’s ex-wife, is recounting the same golf club rape allegations that failed to win over the judge in the divorce and paternity case — and got her branded a liar by another magistrate in criminal court. And this time Bondesson, 40, is asking a civil jury to award her more than $10 million of his $200 million real estate fortune for the alleged three-day ordeal on the grounds that the 2012 incident was just one example of the horrific domestic violence she suffered at his hands.

Ellena Berg had accused her husband of horrific abuse, including an assertion that he outfitted her with a spiked dog collar, chained her to a bed and sexually assaulted her with a golf club while she was nine months’ pregnant.

Bondesson claims that Berg, now 77, whom she met when she was in her 20s and he was in his 60s, also dunked her in a toilet full of her own vomit and liked to choke her while they were having sex.

As a result, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, which prompted her to check herself into a mental hospital during the preliminary hearing in 2013, she and a psychiatrist testified last week. The abuse, they said, continues to play havoc with her memory and well-being.

“I was suffering from severe problems with my mental health and tasked with taking care of a newborn, ” she tearfully told the jury, explaining why she told a sheriff’s investigator in 2012 that Berg had confiscated all her electronic devices when he actually hadn’t.

Berg, who faced a sentence of 15 years to life if he had been convicted of sexually assaulting his pregnant wife, was declared factually innocent last year by Judge Ron Del Pozzo, the same criminal court judge who presided over the 2013 preliminary hearing and concluded that Bondesson was “not worthy of belief” and appeared to be suffering from mental illness.

Berg continues to say all his ex-wife’s claims are lies and has responded to her lawsuit by filing a cross-complaint, accusing her of making false accusations.He is the brother and business partner of billionaire Carl Berg, one of the nation’s richest people. The two developed campuses for many of Silicon Valley’s signature companies.

“She’s a very smart, mentally ill woman, and that combination is very dangerous, ” said Clyde Berg, who claims he is the victim of a greedy scam aimed at getting around a restrictive prenuptial agreement. “I actually feel sorry for her.”

Berg is more at risk of being held responsible now in connection with the abuse of Bondesson than he was in criminal court because the standard of proof in civil cases — “preponderance of the evidence” — is considerably lower than the criminal court’s “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard. And unlike in a criminal case, the verdict of the four women and eight men on the jury does not have to be unanimous. They can hold him liable on a 9-3 vote.

The jurors are also not supposed to know that Berg was declared factually innocent by a judge. His attorneys are prohibited by law from telling them, increasing the chances of a verdict in her favor.

On the other hand, the jury may factor in the strange claim Bondesson made last week when one of Berg’s attorneys questioned her in an attempt to damage her credibility and reveal her state of mind. She testified that the prosecutor in the criminal case, deputy district attorney Alison Filo, may have stolen some of her belongings during the 2012 investigation.

The jury also has heard about a journal entry, purportedly written years ago by Bondesson, in which she vows to take the drug Ecstasy to help her get through the marriage. The journal also says she will not let the prenuptial agreement stop her from getting some of his millions.

Berg’s attorneys also contended that Bondesson forged their client’s signature on various documents as part of a scheme to hold him financially responsible for the daughter she had via artificial insemination. Berg is not the father.

Despite the risks of duking it out in court, Berg has refused to settle any of the cases Bondesson has filed, insisting that he has “never laid a hand on her.” That decision hasn’t come cheap, though it may not put a dent in Berg’s resources. Until recently, he has had to foot her legal bills as well as his own, for a total of more than $2.5 million. He also paid $550, 000 to cover her expenses — in monthly payments ranging from $17, 000 to $25, 000 — until the divorce was final.

But Berg’s legal wrangles with Bondesson may not end anytime soon, regardless of the jury’s verdict in the civil case.

Swedish authorities recently contacted him seeking child support, based on an erroneous claim by Bondesson or her relatives that Berg is the father of her child, Berg said.