Closed-Door Sessions Told at Menendez Trial

With the defense nearing the end of its case, an old tennis buddy of the Menendez brothers testified Thursday that he had to leave Erik Menendez’s bedroom when their father, Jose Menendez, held closed-door sessions.

Ed Fenno, 27, who lived in the Menendez home for several months in 1988 and 1989, said he and Erik Menendez would sit and talk in the bedroom until Jose Menendez ordered him out.

The father always closed the door behind him, Fenno said.

Fenno, who played tennis at Princeton with Lyle Menendez, was called as a defense witness to provide corroboration for the brothers’ testimony that they were sexually abused.

But Fenno also provided ammunition for the prosecution.

Under cross-examination, he conceded it was “very possible” that he told authorities five months ago that Jose Menendez was “upset” when Erik Menendez turned down an acceptance at UC Berkeley.

The defense contends that Jose Menendez made his son enroll at UCLA so he would sleep at home, where he could be molested. Fenno, however, said that Jose Menendez was pleased when his son was accepted at faraway Berkeley.

But Fenno on Thursday tried to dampen the impact of his comments.

“I wasn’t there when (Erik Menendez) turned down Berkeley, and I don’t know if Mr. Menendez got upset,” he said, adding that he just figured any parent would be upset if a child turned down the prestigious school. “It didn’t seem like any big deal,” he added.

Lyle Menendez, 25, and Erik Menendez, 22, are charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of Jose Menendez, 45, a wealthy entertainment executive, and their mother, Kitty, 47.

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

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg indicated Thursday that he was nearing a ruling on a legal issue that could bring the brothers back to the witness stand.

Weisberg is deciding if jurors should hear an audiotape that the defense has spent years keeping secret, that of a Dec. 11, 1989, session the brothers had with their Beverly Hills therapist, L. Jerome Oziel.