Defendant in Killing of Husband Lied About Her Affair

A 33-year-old Tarzana woman on trial in the death of her husband testified Tuesday that she at first denied having a lover because she didn’t think she was a suspect and “didn’t want everyone digging into my life.”

Elizabeth Ozerson acknowledged in Van Nuys Superior Court that, shortly after her husband, Noray, 32, was shot to death Dec. 10, she told police there was no other man in her life.

Ozerson said she has been having an affair since 1981 with Bert Kreisberg, 63, a Studio City real estate investor, and had “numerous times” considered leaving her husband for Kreisberg.

In an interview Thursday, Kreisberg, who is divorced, acknowledged the affair.

Ozerson maintains that she was taking a 7 a.m. walk near the couple’s Geyser Avenue home when her husband, a computer analyst, was shot several times by a burglar. She told police she saw a man in the house after returning from the brief walk and ran to a neighbor’s house to call police, who found her husband’s body.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca G. Omens is seeking to use inconsistencies in the defendant’s statements to police and friends to suggest that Ozerson killed her husband.

Omens declined in an interview to disclose what, if any, motive for the murder she will suggest in final arguments.

The prosecutor also focused on Ozerson’s acknowledgement that she lied to police when she repeatedly told them in the hours after the killing that she had never fired her husband’s .38-caliber pistol, which is believed to have been the murder weapon but has not been found.

Police detectives testified earlier that they tricked Ozerson by falsely saying that chemical tests she submitted to showed traces of gunpowder residue on her hands. Detectives said Ozerson then changed her story to say she had fired her husband’s pistol the night before in the backyard.

Ozerson testified Wednesday that she at first lied about firing the gun “because the finger was pointing at me and I didn’t want to tell them that.” In Thursday’s session, however, Ozerson said she did not regard herself as a suspect.

Detectives said they concocted the gunpowder story, but tests later turned up a residue of burned gunpowder on gloves the defendant had worn the morning of the killing.

Ozerson testified that, after discharging the pistol the night before the murder, she used the gloves to wipe the gun clean.

The defendant also said she was uncertain whether she pulled the trigger “out of frustration or by accident” when she fired a lone shot into the air the previous evening, just as the couple’s dog jumped on her.

Husband Talked of Suicide

She said she was “very upset” at the time because her husband, partly paralyzed since 1979 when he accidentally shot himself in the head, had recently resumed talking about committing suicide. Ozerson said she had taken the gun outside to discard it so he could not use it.

Because of the accident, which occurred while he was cleaning his pistol, Noray Ozerson walked with a limp and used a cane, although he was able to continue working, according to court testimony.

Elizabeth Ozerson acknowledged that her husband was insured for $300,000, but she insisted that only $100,000 was collectable.

A $200,000 policy they had recently taken out “was sure to be denied” because her husband had failed to disclose his disability, she said. Ozerson, a former insurance company secretary, said insurance industry practice is to investigate statements made on medical forms in the case of deaths that occur within a policy’s first two years.

Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann scheduled final arguments in the case for Monday.

Ozerson remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail.