Melvin Belli Admits He Had Sex With Client

Celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli testified that he had sexual relations with his former client, Eli Lilly heir Elena Yee Lutz, but never billed her for them, according to tapes of testimony in a case in which Belli is seeking legal fees from Lutz.

Belli, 78, said during a five-day closed hearing in Boone Circuit Court that he had been threatened with disclosure about sexual trysts.

“That’s the question you and the other lawyers said you’d threaten me with if we continued the case. I slept with her, yes. I had sexual relationships with the young lady. As Confucius say--you get the picture,” Belli said.

Belli testified that he had severed his professional relationship with Elena Lutz on June 6, 1984. He said the last occasion on which he had sex with her was more than 1 1/2 years ago.

Didn’t Affect Work

Belli said his intimate relationship did not affect the quality of legal work he performed for her concerning the Lilly estate. He said he did not bill Lutz additionally for sexual services over a period of three years.

A dispute centering on more than $100,000 in legal fees Lutz allegedly owed to Belli and to former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty was heard in circuit court last week but was closed to the public.

Judge Ronald E. Drury made tapes of the proceedings available Wednesday, one day after the estate was closed.

Drury has said he will rule on the fees case after April 23. Belli contends Lutz owes him $65,000. Yorty is seeking $50,000.

Belli and Yorty had represented Lutz in the estate of millionaire Herbert Barr Lutz, who married Elena Yee in 1979 and died three years later.

Herbert Lutz was the widower of Evelyn Lilly Lutz, the great-granddaughter of Col. Eli Lilly, founder of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical firm.