Testimony Begins Against McDougal

The wife of conductor Zubin Mehta told a Santa Monica jury Wednesday that she was shocked to learn in 1992 that her assistant, Susan McDougal, was charging up to $10,000 a month on a credit card she never knew existed.

Nancy Mehta said she was even more stunned to discover that bills on the credit card, in both her and McDougal’s names, were being paid with checks forged with her signature and drawn on her personal bank account.

“I thought, ‘How could she pay $10,000 a month on this card?’ ” Mehta said. Then, she said she realized: “I’m paying for it.”

McDougal, who spent more than a year in jail rather than testify about the Clintons in the Whitewater land deal, is accused of embezzling more than $150,000 from the Mehtas. The charges cover the time that she worked for Nancy Mehta from 1989 until mid-1992.

Drawing on her acting training, Mehta, who once appeared in the television sitcom “Bewitched” and in the film “Jason and the Argonauts,” responded in the well-modulated tones of a wealthy matron.

As she described learning of McDougal’s allegedly questionable spending and accounting procedures, her voice rose at times. And, she frequently changed her voice to reflect statements said by others. When she repeated things that McDougal said, she spoke with a slight twang, mimicking the defendant’s Arkansas accent.

Mehta and McDougal once were extraordinarily close for employer and employee--so tight, according to prosecution witnesses, that over time they came to look alike as McDougal dyed her hair blond and adopted her wealthy boss’ style of dress. According to one witness, she even wore Mehta’s clothes while Mehta was away.

But on Wednesday, as the two key players at the embezzlement trial faced each other across the courtroom, they seemed polar opposites.

McDougal’s hair once again is dark, and she wore a white suit as she sat up straight and silent at the defense table. Mehta, her blond hair draped over one eye, Veronica Lake-style, wore black for her appearance as a witness for the prosecution.

Mehta testified that she had considered McDougal a personal friend and trusted her “implicitly.” She had invited McDougal on a vacation in Baja California and paid her way.

But, according to Mehta’s testimony, there were prior events that should have raised her suspicions about her assistant.

She said she learned from an accountant that McDougal had taken out $6,000 on the equity line that the Mehtas carried on their account for emergencies. When confronted, McDougal paid it back by agreeing to have money withdrawn from her paycheck.

On another occasion, Mehta testified, an audit showed that McDougal had used Mehta’s checkbook during a trip to Arkansas. She repeatedly asked McDougal to refund the money, requests that made her uncomfortable.

“I felt if she was considering me as a friend, she would pay me back,” Mehta said. When she finally did, McDougal slammed the check in front of her, saying, “There!” Mehta testified.

During her day on the witness stand, Mehta told the jury in no uncertain terms that she never authorized McDougal to sign her name to checks, never let McDougal do her shopping for her, and never knew that McDougal had taken out a credit card in both their names.

Attacking a pillar of the defense’s theory, Nancy Mehta also denied clashing with her husband over his spending too much on children born outside their 29-year marriage. The defense claims that the expenditures McDougal made were authorized by Nancy Mehta to drain the couple’s bank accounts each month so Zubin Mehta wouldn’t send money to his children.

McDougal is expected to testify in her own defense later in the trial.