Lyle Menendez Telling Truth, 4th Expert Says : Trial: Detailed accounts of abuse, unusual affection for toy animals were among factors that convinced him, defense witness says.

Echoing now-familiar themes, another defense expert testified Friday that Lyle Menendez was molested as a child and that he and his brother killed their parents out of fear.

The fourth defense expert to take the witness stand in a week, Jon R. Conte, a professor of social work at the University of Washington, said the elaborate detail in Lyle Menendez’s accounts of his childhood--such as looking for stuffed animals to play out his fears--convinced him the abuse was real.

Under defense questioning Friday, Conte also talked about how Lyle Menendez kept a ceramic leopard in his room--and always turned it so the leopard could keep watch over him.

In addition, Conte said, if Lyle Menendez touched an object once he had to touch it again for reassurance.

These seemingly innocuous boyhood rituals, Conte said, indicated that the older Menendez brother was anxious about a secret he did not want revealed, so he created his imaginary world to feel safe.

Lyle Menendez, 25, and Erik Menendez, 22, are charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their parents, Jose Menendez, 45, a millionaire entertainment executive, and Kitty Menendez, 47, in the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Prosecutors contend that the brothers killed out of hatred and greed. The brothers testified that they acted in self-defense after years of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

Lyle Menendez testified that he was molested by his father from the age of 6 to 8. He also testified that he molested his younger brother.

Conte, 45, said he interviewed Lyle Menendez in jail for 60 hours over the last year and plowed through piles of records. That research, he said, not only convinced him that Lyle Menendez was telling the truth but that there is more to tell--details apparently still too painful to the older Menendez brother to reveal.

“I believe he told me what he was able to tell me,” Conte said. “And what he told me is believable.”

In describing the abuse during interviews at the Los Angeles County Jail, Lyle Menendez gave an account that had what experts call “affect,” Conte said.

“It had shame, it had a reluctance to talk about it, it had some level of embarrassment,” Conte said. “He wasn’t overly dramatic.”

Another indicator, Conte said, was the affection Lyle Menendez exhibited for his extensive stuffed animal collection, even into his teen-age years. He gave each of the dozens of toys a name and personality--nasty ones, weak ones, even one that was a judge--and “acted out issues in his life,” Conte said.

Kitty Menendez once threw out one of the animals, and a dog ate most of it. But Lyle Menendez retrieved the animal’s hat, which was important to him, Conte said.

“That description was wholly believable to me,” Conte said, adding that a “non-victim” would not have cared so passionately about his toy animals.

Prosecutors are due to cross-examine Conte on Monday. They contend that the accounts of abuse are largely fabricated and have noted that the experts are relying on information provided by the defense lawyers and the Menendez brothers, who have admitted lying frequently to authorities about their role in the killings.

Conte is the last defense expert on child abuse. Defense lawyers told Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg that they hope to rest their case next week.