Therapist’s Testimony on Menendez Plot OKd : Courts: Judge rules that both juries may hear psychologist’s account of sessions in which he says Erik Menendez confessed to slayings.

A judge ruled Thursday that both juries in the murder trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez will hear the brothers’ therapist testify that they plotted to kill their father, then included their mother so their plan would be perfect.

The brothers’ primary goal, Beverly Hills psychologist L. Jerome Oziel testified Thursday outside the presence of jurors, was to kill their father, Jose Menendez, because he controlled them and made them feel inadequate and inferior.

Despite doubts, Lyle and Erik Menendez decided that they would also kill their mother, Kitty Menendez, to eliminate her as a witness, Oziel said, emphasizing that they refused to reconsider. “If the plan was altered, it wouldn’t be perfect, and they wouldn’t be able to kill their father at all,” Oziel said.

Lyle Menendez, 25, looking back at the audience, shook his head from side to side in apparent disbelief upon hearing Oziel’s comments. Erik Menendez, 22, showed no emotion as Oziel gave the first public description of the secrets the brothers allegedly shared with him two months after killing their parents.

Even though Oziel’s testimony will be hearsay evidence, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg said jurors were entitled to hear it because it is highly relevant.

The brothers are charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, slayings. The parents, Jose Menendez, 45, a wealthy entertainment executive, and Kitty Menendez, 47, were killed in the TV room of the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Prosecutors contend that greed and hatred drove the brothers to kill and are seeking the death penalty. Defense lawyers have said the brothers killed their parents but say it was an act of self-defense after years of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

Two juries are hearing the case, one for each brother, because some evidence is admissible against only one of them. Neither jury was in court Thursday as Weisberg weighed legal arguments about the scope of Oziel’s testimony.

Prosecutors have made it plain that Oziel is the key witness in their case. Defense lawyers emphasized that they plan to attack his testimony.

“I intend to attack his credibility in every way known to man and God,” Leslie Abramson, Erik Menendez’s lead defense lawyer, said Thursday in court.

Last week, the State Board of Psychology moved to revoke Oziel’s license, alleging misconduct in the recording of the Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, 1989, therapy sessions that led police to arrest Lyle and Erik Menendez on murder charges.

The board also accused Oziel of improperly furnishing drugs without prescription to two women and of assaulting both of them while they were his lovers.

Oziel denies any wrongdoing. Weisberg ruled Thursday that the only mention of the state agency’s complaint phat the defense will be able to make is regarding his conduct at the Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 sessions.

During the Oct. 31 session, according to court documents, Erik Menendez confessed to the killings.

Defense lawyers tried for three years to keep Oziel’s tape-recorded notes of those sessions from the trial, saying they were protected by the patient-therapist privilege. The state Supreme Court disagreed.

The tapes remain sealed. But Oziel, referring Thursday to a transcript, discussed his notes in public for the first time.

A few days before the killings, Erik Menendez noticed that his mother and father, particularly his mother, began to lock their bedroom door. Kitty Menendez looked anxious and nervous, Oziel said he was told by the younger brother.

It was, Oziel said he was told by Erik Menendez, as if Kitty Menendez had the sense that “something dreadful, something ominous” was about to happen.

Lyle Menendez’s lawyers argued that such a statement should be heard only by the Erik Menendez jury. But Weisberg said it was relevant to the case and would be heard by both.

Oziel also said the brothers seemed “immensely pleased with the excitement of pulling off these . . . crimes without being caught.”

Weisberg said Oziel would not be permitted to testify to that sentence as fact. Instead, the judge said Oziel could only describe for jurors what it was about the brothers’ mannerisms and appearance that led him to that conclusion.

The brothers were not arrested until seven months after the killings, or five months after they spoke with Oziel, and only then after a former lover of Oziel’s told police about the tapes.

Oziel is due back in court today for more testimony outside the presence of jurors.