Trial Opens in Fatal Shooting at Courthouse

On this point, the lawyers at the murder trial agree: Harry Zelig, a Woodland Hills physician, shot and killed his former wife on Sept. 1, 1995, at the downtown civil courthouse, ending the couple’s obsessive, two-year contest of divorce court one-upmanship.

And, prosecutor Steven Slavitt and defense attorney Edward A. Rucker agreed that the shooting brought to an end a bitter legal battle that produced a 700-page court file and seemed to mimic the plot of the film “The War of the Roses.”

But beyond that, it will be the job of a jury dominated by women to decide the central issue of a murder case spawned from a divorce case:

Was 50-year-old Harry Zelig, by profession duty-bound to heal rather than harm, a self-centered man who cut off alimony and child support payments, then killed the mother of his three children so she’d never squeeze another penny from him?

Or, was he a sickly nebbish who carried a gun because he was afraid to ride the bus to court, then “snapped like a frayed rope” after the woman he believed had taken everything from him--his health, his credit, his children--seized his pride and joy, a 1988 Ford Ltd. with the vanity tag “DR HARRY”?

Lawyers painted the opposing portraits of Zelig during their opening statements Tuesday to the nine women and three men on the jury. Zelig is accused of first-degree murder, and the jury’s opinion of the pudgy, pallid defendant could mean the difference between first- and second-degree murder--and whether Zelig ever has a chance at parole from state prison. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Defense attorney Rucker told jurors there was no question that Zelig pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and shot his 40-year-old ex-wife in the neck at the base of a courthouse escalator. But he said it was the impulsive act of a man pushed to the brink.

Slavitt, the prosecutor, told jurors that killing his wife had been on Zelig’s mind for at least a year before that day. Slavitt said that, as a full-time consultant for the State Medical Board, the policing agency for physicians, Zelig had been making remarks to co-workers such as, “I hope she drops dead,” “Well, I haven’t killed her yet” and “The only way I’ll be free of her is to kill her.”

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Later, Zelig told yet another co-worker: “ ‘Watch the news about this case. You’ll see something big about this case,’ ” Slavitt added. He said such remarks provide “overwhelming evidence” that Zelig “thought about it in advance” and committed first-degree murder.

But defense attorney Rucker claimed that Zelig lashed out after his wife softly taunted him at the courthouse about his impotence--a complication of diabetes--and a $600,000 life insurance policy. He’d been ordered in divorce court to keep paying the premiums.

According to Harry Zelig’s version of events, as told by defense attorney Rucker, the shooting was sparked by this final exchange of words at the foot of a courthouse escalator:

He said: “If you keep this up, you’re going to kill me.”

She said: “You’re finally getting it. You’re of no value to me as a man, but you’re worth $600,000 to me dead.”

About a dozen of Eileen Zelig’s friends attended the trial on Tuesday. They disputed the defense’s version of events, saying Eileen had been terrified of her former husband, who threatened to kill her.

“She’d never say anything like that,” said one of the friends, Dana Tachett. “She was afraid of him.”

Other witnesses are expected this week to set the scene at the courthouse, including some lawyers still haunted by the screams of the couple’s daughter, Lisa, who was 6 when she witnessed the shooting.

The children now live with their maternal grandparents near Philadelphia. The videotaped testimony of Lisa, now 8, is expected to be heard next week. She will testify via videotape at a psychologist’s suggestion, sparing her from the trauma of facing her father in court.