Menendez Psychologist Denies Asking Woman to Eavesdrop : Lawsuit: He says he never asked her to listen in on therapy sessions with brothers charged in parents’ murder.

A Beverly Hills psychologist who documented an alleged murder confession by the Menendez brothers on audiotape called a press conference Thursday to deny allegations made by a former girlfriend in interviews and a lawsuit.

L. Jerome Oziel said he never asked or authorized the woman, Judalon Smyth, to listen in on therapy sessions with Lyle and Erik Menendez, who are charged with the shotgun slayings of their parents last summer.

“Smyth was never asked to eavesdrop on any of my patients in therapy, nor do I believe she ever did,” Oziel read from a prepared statement, with his wife, Laurel, at his side.

He refused to answer any questions, either about his relationship with the defendants or his relationship with Smyth, nor did he explain how she could have obtained information about the supposedly confidential psychotherapy sessions except through him.

Smyth, who has said Oziel was both her lover and her therapist, claims that the psychologist discussed the Menendez case with her in detail and asked her to listen outside his office last Halloween when the brothers allegedly made statements that implicated them in the murders.

Tapes, either of the psychotherapy sessions themselves or Oziel’s account of them afterward, were seized by authorities just before the brothers’ arrests, and a Superior Court judge has ruled that they may be given to prosecutors for possible use as evidence at trial. That ruling is being appealed by defense attorneys.

The bulk of Oziel’s statement--delivered before dozens of reporters and cameramen in a rented conference room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel--dealt with issues peripheral to the Menendez case, namely a soap-opera triangle involving the psychologist, his wife and the 37-year-old woman he said wrote him dozens of love letters.

Oziel’s civil attorney, Stanley Saltzman, said Oziel had felt it necessary to summon the media because recent allegations “have impugned his integrity.” Oziel distributed a press packet containing his biography and a statement, statements by his wife and his lawyer, copies of love letters he said came from Smyth, and other documents.

In a lawsuit filed last spring, Smyth alleges physical and sexual assault and fraud. The suit alleges that the psychologist developed an intimate relationship with her while she was his patient, threatened, choked and struck her on several occasions, raped her, gave her drugs and coerced her into signing a $5,000 promissory note for money she believed to be a gift.

In television and magazine interviews, Smyth has painted an unflattering portrait of Oziel as a man who took advantage of her vulnerability by seducing her psychologically and physically, and involving her in a dangerous situation--that of knowing more about the Menendez murders than she should.

She also said he was a lousy lover.

Although Oziel has given varying accounts of his relationship with Smyth in the past, at Thursday’s press conference he said that she was never his patient, nor did he ever prescribe medication for her.

He denied raping or assaulting her, characterizing her as “a woman scorned,” straight out of the movie “Fatal Attraction,” who is exploiting the media and the Menendez connection to destroy him. He said he did not hypnotize her and did not force her to sign the note for what he called “a loan extended to her in a time of need.”

Oziel’s wife of 21 years, also a psychotherapist, read a prepared statement in which she said she was aware of her husband’s “social” relationship with Smyth, a woman she claims “spent the better part of a year campaigning to steal my husband.” She said Smyth pursued Oziel relentlessly and that “an overwhelming event (the Menendez murders) occurred that artificially tied her to our family before he could exit the relationship.”

Smyth moved into the family’s Sherman Oaks house, where “we were held hostage by this woman in our own home,” Laurel Oziel said. She did not elaborate.

Oziel is expected to be a key prosecution witness in the Menendez trial. The next court date for the brothers, who have not yet had a preliminary hearing, is Oct. 22 in Beverly Hills Municipal Court.