Therapist Says He Tried to Hide From Brothers : Trial: He testifies that he feared for the safety of his wife, children and lover after the Menendezes confessed to killing their parents.

After the Menendez brothers confessed to him that they had killed their parents, a Beverly Hills psychologist testified Thursday, “I was of the firm belief that Erik and Lyle were going to murder me.”

L. Jerome Oziel told jurors in the brothers’ murder trial that he also feared for the safety of his wife, his children and his lover.

The therapist said he warned his wife, Laurel, to go with the children to a neighbor’s house, and he moved in with his girlfriend, Judalon Smyth.

“Were you hiding out?” defense attorney Leslie Abramson asked.

“Yes,” Oziel said.

“But you saw 11 patients the next day, didn’t you?” she asked.

“I know I saw patients,” he said, and he acknowledged that the brothers could have found him at his office.

Oziel is the prosecution’s star witness against the brothers, who say they shotgunned their father, millionaire Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty, in self-defense after years of sexual and psychological abuse.

Oziel insisted that he was more concerned that the Menendez brothers would go to his house, where he kept confidential files as well as documents describing his business and personal relationship with Smyth.

That was why he said he decided to tell Smyth his secret about the two wealthy young men, he said.

“Did you think that she was a stable person?” Abramson asked.

“Not really,” Oziel said.

“So you went to the home of this not very stable person and said the Menendez brothers had threatened to kill you and her too?”

“I said something like that, not in those words,” Oziel said.

“And was it your intention to have someone go to the police and blow the whistle on the Menendez brothers?” the attorney asked.

“No,” Oziel said. “I made every effort to avoid that.”

Abramson, who represents Erik Menendez, 22, attempted to chip away at Oziel’s credibility the day after the therapist testified that Erik confessed that he and Lyle Menendez, 25, killed their parents in a carefully thought-out plot.

The parents’s bodies were found in their Beverly Hills mansion Aug. 20, 1989. Oziel said he heard the confessions Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, 1989.

The brothers were not arrested until Smyth went to police the next March and revealed what she had heard from the therapist.

Oziel’s testimony has fueled controversy over therapist-patient rights of confidentiality. The California Supreme Court has ruled that notes taken by Oziel during two therapy sessions could be revealed under an exception to confidentiality because they could be considered dangerous patients.

The state Psychology Board is seeking to revoke Oziel’s license, charging ethical violations, including his allowing Smyth to illegally tape-record therapy sessions with the brothers.

After the confessions, Oziel said, he called colleagues for advice but never reported the brothers to police.

“The events that night were such that I was of the firm belief that Erik and Lyle were going to murder me,” he said.

“Why did you not call police?” Abramson asked.

“I thought I would be killed,” Oziel said.

“The police were going to kill you?” she asked incredulously.

Oziel said he believed there was no evidence other than his account to implicate the men in the murders and thus believed they would be released from custody and could kill him.

Oziel said he remembered calling two small police departments and anonymously asking what the likelihood was of convicting two murderers on the sole basis of a therapist’s testimony.

“So your concern wasn’t whether Lyle and Erik would be arrested, but only whether they could be convicted?” Abramson asked.

“That was not the only concern,” Oziel said. “It was a concern.”