Brothers Get Hearing Date in Slaying Case : Courts: Lyle and Erik Menendez, accused of killing their parents in Beverly Hills, are scheduled to appear Aug. 12. But prosecutors want a delay until there is a ruling on psychologist’s tapes.

After more than a year of delay, a preliminary hearing date was set Tuesday for the Menendez brothers, who are accused of gunning down their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Beverly Hills Municipal Judge Charles Rubin set Aug. 12 for the proceeding to decide if the two brothers should stand trial in the bloody shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents.

But prosecutors said they will seek a delay until the California Supreme Court decides whether key evidence--four audiotapes made by the brothers’ psychologist--can be used against Lyle Menendez, 23, and Erik Menendez, 20.

Defense lawyers want the trial to start as soon as possible for the brothers, who are accused of the Aug. 20, 1989, slayings of their parents, video production company executive Jose Menendez, 45, and his wife, Kitty, 47.

“We’d like to get this case moving,” said Jill Lansing, who represents Lyle Menendez. “These boys have been held in jail for 16 months without bail and we’ve had no opportunity to tell our side of the story in court.”

District attorney’s office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said prosecutors plan to ask the Supreme Court to issue a stay--putting the case on hold until the high court rules on the admissibility of the audiotapes made by psychologist Jerome Oziel.

“We want to see and hear all our evidence before we proceed,” Gibbons said.

To speed the case, the defense also offered to skip the preliminary hearing and go straight to trial once the appeal is concluded.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Pam Ferrero, however, declined for “legal and tactical reasons.” She told Rubin that she feared the brothers would assert their right to a quick trial after bypassing the hearing, which could force prosecutors to go forward without the tapes.

In addition, the defense said it would agree to wait on the preliminary hearing if Rubin set bail and the brothers could be freed pending trial.

But Gibbons said the prosecution will continue to insist that the pair remain in the County Jail without bail, the normal practice in a death-penalty case.

The brothers are accused of firing 15 shotgun blasts at their parents while the couple ate ice cream and watched television. A state appeals court revealed in March that Erik Menendez told Oziel that he and his brother killed their parents. Court documents said Erik told the psychologist that the slaying was not an attempt to get a $14-million inheritance but resulted from the brothers’ hatred of their father and a desire to be free of his domination.

The appellate court ruled that Oziel did not violate the doctor-patient privilege of confidentiality when he disclosed the brothers’ statements to court officials.

At the request of defense lawyers, the state Supreme Court agreed on June 27 to decide whether prosecutors can use Oziel’s tapes at trial.

Three of the tapes are Oziel’s personal notes of his sessions with the brothers. The fourth tape purportedly includes the Menendez brothers’ voices during a therapy session several months after the slayings.

California law generally protects the confidentiality of discussions between patients and their psychotherapists, but exceptions have been made when patients threaten to harm someone or when their statements already have been revealed to a third party.

The appeals court ruled that Oziel’s tapes were not covered by doctor-patient privilege because the brothers’ allegedly threatened to kill the psychologist during the conversations.