Kitty Menendez Weighed Suicide, Former Therapist Says : Courts: Subordinate says murder defendants’ father was ‘the ultimate control freak.’ Brothers could return to the stand if judge allows admission of a key audiotape.

Kitty Menendez was suicidal over her husband’s eight-year extramarital affair, and Jose Menendez was “the ultimate control freak,” two witnesses testified Friday at Lyle and Erik Menendez’s murder trial.

Continuing to round out a personality profile of the parents, the defense on Friday called its 52nd and 53rd witnesses: Kitty Menendez’s onetime therapist and Jose Menendez’s ex-corporate colleague.

North Hollywood psychologist Edwin S. Cox said Kitty Menendez saw suicide as a way to get back at her husband for his longtime affair, carried on with a woman in New York. “Her purpose was to punish her husband and she didn’t think much about the effect on her children,” Cox said.

Roger R. Smith, who was second in command at Van Nuys-based Live Entertainment, said Jose Menendez once spelled out his potent management credo: “I’ve always thought it far better, Roger, to be feared than loved.”

Lyle and Erik Menendez, charged with first-degree murder, admit that they killed their parents Aug. 20, 1989, but testified that they acted in fear and self-defense after years of abuse. Prosecutors contend the brothers killed out of hatred and greed.

Testimony was limited Friday to the morning. Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg spent all afternoon in a closed hearing on a legal issue that could bring the brothers back to the stand.

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

The judge did not indicate Friday when he would rule. Defense lawyers have said that they are near the end of their case if the tape is not unsealed.

But if admitted, the tape could prove an unexpected boost for the prosecution because it features the brothers’ own voices describing their family to the therapist, apparently with no mention of sexual abuse.

The trial began July 20. Since Aug. 16, the defense has put on dozens of witnesses who have portrayed the Menendez family as being dysfunctional and Jose Menendez as a tyrant.

Echoing the testimony of those before, Cox said Kitty Menendez was dependent on drugs and alcohol, depressed and obsessed with appearances. He saw her in therapy from November, 1986, until February, 1987.

“She was proud that she drank cognac,” Cox said, because she thought it was a “high-class drink.” He added that she believed one of Lyle Menendez’s girlfriends “would not have been a trophy wife” and worried that the young woman was “taking him places sexually that he was not prepared to go.”

Cox told jurors, “I found that odd.”

Under cross-examination, Cox conceded that the last time he saw Kitty Menendez was in February, 1987.

“Do you know what she was thinking the night she died?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Bozanich asked.

“No,” he said.

Smith, who followed Cox to the stand, said he flat-out did not like Jose Menendez, who got things done by “belittling and instilling fear.”

Nevertheless, Smith said, Jose Menendez did get things done. In three years, from 1986 to 1989, annual revenue at Live Entertainment soared from $40 million to $400 million.

“I take it, Mr. Smith, that you did not like Jose Menendez at all,” Bozanich said.

“I think I’ve stated that,” the witness replied.

“You spoke at the memorial service, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Yes, I did.”

“Did you speak well of Jose Menendez?”

“Of course.”

“Did you feel like a hypocrite?”

“A little bit.”

The trial will not resume until Wednesday because the judge will be at a conference.