Murder Trial Witness Says He Lied to Get Plea Deal

A key prosecution witness in the trial of a man charged with killing his grandfather testified Wednesday that he had fabricated stories he told police about the murder in hopes of obtaining favorable treatment after a 1988 burglary arrest.

Charles Berkowitz was testifying in the murder trial of Noel P. Scott, 27, a struggling actor and musician, who was arrested last February and charged with killing Louis Fox, his 70-year-old grandfather. The murder allegedly occurred during a bungled October, 1983, robbery of Fox’s Studio City house.

The case was unsolved until five years after the slaying, when Berkowitz, who had been arrested on suspicion of five counts of commercial burglary, told the police he would “give them some information if they could cut me a deal.” Berkowitz is serving a three-year state prison sentence for the burglaries.

Berkowitz, 26, testified Wednesday that although he received no special treatment, he told police that he and Scott, a friend, met in a park several days after the murder. Berkowitz alleged that Scott asked him at the time how to alter fingerprints and how to beat a lie detector test.

Berkowitz said he told authorities the truth about that incident. But, he testified, he also made up another story about Scott.

Neither defense attorney Sherwin Edelberg nor Deputy Dist. Atty. Sidney D. Trapp Jr. would comment on the story that Berkowitz said he fabricated.

However, the week of Scott’s 1989 arrest, police detectives said Berkowitz had told them that Scott had confessed to the crime. Scott has denied killing his grandfather and said he was at a Hollywood club that night.

Berkowitz testified that when a police investigator contacted him again in prison, several months after Scott had been arrested, he admitted that part of his earlier statement to police had been false.

Edelberg said he believes authorities were unwilling to drop the case against Scott even after they found out that Berkowitz was lying.

Trapp refused to comment on Berkowitz’s testimony or the events leading up to or following Scott’s arrest.

On the witness stand, Berkowitz stood by his account of Scott’s comments several days after the killing. Berkowitz testified that he and Scott were at the park when he noticed that all of Scott’s fingers had been slashed, as if with a razor blade.

Berkowitz said Scott told him he had cut his hands while repairing his car, but later asked him how to alter fingerprints and how to beat a polygraph test.

Berkowitz’s testimony is expected to continue today.