Aaron Klein didn't want to upset the lesbian couple, he said Tuesday, when he refused to make their wedding cake two years ago. But he believed he was "well within" his rights to turn them away.

He wasn't, an administrative law judge ruled earlier this year. Now Klein and his wife, who run Sweet Cakes by Melissa, may have to pay damages to the couple.

Testimony began last week in the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries hearing to determine how much in damages the Kleins should pay to Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer. Prosecutors are seeking $75,000 for each woman, a total of $150,000.

The case is a legal dispute over a Christian couple's insistence that their religious beliefs against same-sex marriage trump a state law requiring them to serve customers equally.

Last week, the Bowman-Cryers both testified to the emotional stress they attributed to their experience with Sweet Cakes as well as the glare of media attention that soon followed. Rachel's mother and brother also testified to the hurt and anger they witnessed in the couple.

Tuesday morning, Aaron Klein told his side.

Aaron and Melissa Klein had twin 8-month old boys in January 2013. They alternated shifts: One person ran the bakery while the other stayed home.

"I drew the short straw that day, and I was at the shop," Klein testified Tuesday.

Rachel Bowman-Cryer brought her mother, Cheryl McPherson, to the Jan. 17, 2013 cake tasting.

Klein brought out a 10-inch, black dinner plate, the same plate he uses for all tastings. He brought options.

"Melissa has always been on my case to have nine different flavors," Klein testified.

Klein said he sat down, holding his clipboard with the company's standard cake contract. He asked the customers for the name of the bride and groom, as well as their wedding date.

Rachel Bowman-Cryer "didn't even give me the wedding date, just the fact that there were two brides," Klein testified. "She giggled a little bit."

Klein testified that he didn't want to have to say no. He said he spoke in the tone he always uses when he's shy about making a point. He spoke in "a deep, monotone voice" as he broke the news.

"I didn't want to make anybody upset," Klein said Tuesday. "I said, 'I'm very sorry, I believe I have wasted your time. We do not do cakes for same sex weddings.'"

Klein testified that Rachel Bowman-Cryer looked at her mother. They stood up and left.

"I don't remember hearing any words," Klein said. "I don't remember anybody crying, just upset I could tell."

Later that day, Klein said, McPherson returned to the shop alone.

"She stated that you have your opinion and you have a right to it, but I'd like to say my piece," Klein testified. "She told me God had made her children gay and that her truth had changed and that she accepted them."

Klein said he did not mean to belittle anyone when he spoke next.

"Why would the Bible say, and I quoted Leviticus," Klein testified.

In affidavits, Klein said he quoted Leviticus 18:22, saying, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."

Klein testified that McPherson said, "You're wrong," and walked out.

Twelve days later, Klein said, he received a letter informing him the state was investigating him for discrimination.

Rachel Bowman-Cryer has said that the experience at the shop left her "humiliated and ashamed and destroyed and questioning -- questioning whether anybody or not would accept us as a married couple."

In testimony last week, Rachel Bowman-Cryer said she and her wife received death threats as media attention and criticism from strangers escalated in the months after the story went national in January 2013.

In Klein's Tuesday morning testimony, the defense sought to show that other forces -- the media, the labor commission itself -- are to blame for the emotional stress the Bowman-Cryers say they experienced.

Tuesday testimony examined the effects of media attention. BOLI press releases, Huffington Post blogs and The Oregonian/OregonLive articles were submitted as evidence.

Klein and his lawyer, Herbert Grey, spent an hour analyzing Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian's Facebook page, a page where he celebrated marriage equality wins and an award given to the commissioner by LGBT-lobbying group Basic Rights Oregon.

Klein's wife Melissa smiled frequently as the sparse audience gathered to listen.

The Bowman-Cryers looked glum throughout most of the morning testimony. They looked down with furrowed brows. They did not smile. Rachel Bowman-Cryer never even glanced at the witness stand where Klein testified.

Aaron Klein said his family, too, had suffered because of the case. Reporters came to his home and his shop, he testified.

The Sweet Cakes by Melissa car was vandalized and broken into twice. Clackamas County, Klein testified, is investigating those cases as a hate crime.

Photographers and florists severed ties with the company, eventually forcing Sweet Cakes to close the Gresham shop in September 2013.

"It hit us pretty hard," Melissa Klein testified Tuesday afternoon.

She makes some cakes for friends and churches, but the bakery is not a business the way it once was.

Melissa Klein said she wished she had talked to the Bowman-Cryers soon after that January day. The couple did email her, she said, but she worried they were trying to get her to admit something in writing. She now feels like she may have alleviated everyone's stress if she had replied.

"I could have helped her to understand a little more maybe where we were coming from," Klein said. "I could have explained a little bit more about us and about our faith and why we could not participate in the event."



Klein began crying and looked at the couple when she spoke.



"It was not about them," she said while looking at the couple. "It was about the event."

Each side will present closing arguments Wednesday, and the hearing should conclude this week. Judge Alan McCullough, the same judge who ruled that the Kleins had discriminated against Bowman and Cryer, may spend weeks determining damages. McCullough will make a recommendation to state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. Avakian can then adjust the amount in issuing a final order.

Other BOLI-investigated discrimination cases have ended with steep payouts: Avakian ordered the P-Club to pay a total of $400,000 to a group of cross-dressers whom owner Chris Penner barred from the club. And Daimler Trucks agreed to pay a $2.4 million settlement after Avakian filed a complaint on behalf of Daimler employees who complained of racism.

-- Casey Parks