LOS ANGELES : Menendez Told of Abuse, Jail Psychiatrist Says

Erik Menendez was a “basket case” after he was jailed for killing his parents and only months later disclosed that he had been molested by his father, his jailhouse psychiatrist testified Wednesday.

With the focus in the lengthy murder trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez switching one final time to the defense, Dr. William Vicary was called to refute prosecutors’ contentions that the brothers’ claims of sexual abuse are a fiction.

Erik Menendez told the story in “fits and starts” after first confiding in him in August, 1990, Vicary said.

Vicary said the younger Menendez brother spent his first weeks in county jail “sobbing, hysterical, withdrawn, constantly chewing his fingernails, his fingers in his mouth, refusing to have any direct eye contact.” Vicary said he prescribed a combination tranquilizer and anti-depressant, then the anti-depressant Xanax.