Executive Arrested in Bludgeoning of Ex-Wife

A prominent Westlake businessman, a subject of an investigation of a murder-for-hire scheme against his spouse in 1993, has been arrested on suspicion of the bludgeoning attack on the same woman last month, authorities said.

Lee R. Mannheimer, 56, was arrested Monday night after Ventura County Sheriff’s Department investigators scoured his Westlake home for evidence connecting him to the Sept. 12 beating of Linda Lou Morrisset, who divorced him in 1994.

The wealthy business executive is expected to be arraigned today, prosecutors said. He was booked into Ventura County jail on suspicion of attempted murder and is being held on $2-million bail.

“Mannheimer is a distinct flight risk,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox. “His financial condition is very good, and he has lots of international contacts.”

Mannheimer, now an executive for a lighting company in Chatsworth, speaks several languages and has traveled extensively overseas, court records show.

Authorities have released few details about the September attack, during which Morrisset was severely beaten about the head in her Santa Rosa Valley home and left in a coma and in critical condition for several days.

Morrisset, 48, is still recovering from the attack, according to her current husband, Richard Morrisset, an accountant who ran unsuccessfully for Ventura County auditor-controller in 1994. He was out of town during the attack.

A man at Mannheimer’s residence, who identified himself as an au pair working for the executive, said in an interview Tuesday he was told that a badly beaten Morrisset awoke from her coma recently and she told investigators that the person who attacked her was her former husband.

Robert Honisch, a German live-in assistant hired by Mannheimer a few of months ago to aid in child care, said that Mannheimer was questioned by police shortly after his ex-wife was found bludgeoned, and he denied any involvement in the beating.

In 1993, Northern California authorities investigated Mannheimer for allegedly trying to hire two men to kill his then-wife, Linda Lou Mannheimer.

That case began in late July 1993 in Sacramento when Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies received a cryptic message from an FBI informant alleging he had been offered $10,000 to kill a woman in Southern California.

At the time, Lee Mannheimer was president of PerfectData, a large publicly traded computer products firm in Simi Valley, and the couple were in the midst of a bitter divorce battle over assets and custody of their 3-year-old son.

Sacramento deputies, after notifying Ventura County sheriff’s officials and federal authorities of the alleged plot, planned a sting operation that would enable an undercover officer to secretly tape the suspected conspirators as they discussed the slaying.

But that operation was cut short when the informant told authorities he was under pressure to commit the murder immediately.

Worried another hit man might be hired, authorities told Linda Mannheimer of the threat on her life and placed her in hiding on Aug. 13, 1993--three days before she was supposed to be killed.

*

In a 1993 interview with The Times, Linda Mannheimer recalled her shock and terror after learning she had to flee her home to hide to remain safe.

“I didn’t know who was waiting to jump out of the bushes,” she said at the time.

Authorities arrested John Herbert Judd Jr., a 49-year-old Placer County electronics technician whom investigators believe hired the informant to kill the woman.

Mannheimer and one of his employees at PerfectData, sales representative Anthony Francis Gigliotti, were also under investigation after Judd’s arrest. Gigliotti was subsequently arrested in Contra Costa County.

Ultimately, the case against all three men was dropped, said prosecutor Fox, who declined to elaborate on the reason for that decision.

An attorney for Gigliotti said at the time of those arrests that the men were hired to gather information about the woman, but not to kill her.

In March 1994, Lee Mannheimer was released from his job at PerfectData, according to court records. Though a letter from his employer blames the termination on the corporation’s loss in revenue, Mannheimer believed that was not what ultimately cost him his high-paying position.

“I believe the second reason for my termination has to due with the accusations made against me in connection with the alleged murder plot against” his wife, Mannheimer wrote in divorce documents filed in March 1994. “The fact that I had nothing whatsoever to do with the alleged plot did not stop [her] from highly publicizing my alleged involvement, nor did it prevent the press from writing numerous stories.”

Believing the publicity “had a tremendous impact” on his credibility with the company, Mannheimer filed a lawsuit against his former wife for publicly blaming him in the scheme.

The outcome of that lawsuit, filed in September 1994, was unknown late Tuesday.

The ensuing divorce fight, meanwhile, lingered while the couple bickered over crystal champagne glasses and clothing Linda alleged that Lee threw away to spite her, court papers show.

“There is absolutely no need for this kind of conduct as it simply escalates the tension in an already unpleasant situation,” an attorney for Linda wrote to Lee’s representatives in July 1993.

Subsequent court battles between the couple involved which spouse should be made to pay spousal and child support.

Linda Morrisset, a certified public accountant who owned her own business before her marriage to Mannheimer, originally asked for both spousal and child support. Though she was again working as an accountant at an Oxnard firm at the time of the divorce filing, she reported her earnings to be about $2,300 a month, compared with her husband’s $10,000 monthly paychecks, according to court records.

*

But after loosing his job with PerfectData, Mannheimer demanded his wife be ordered to give him more than $1,100 in monthly support payments.

The divorce was finalized in June 1994 with the couple sharing custody of their son and Lee Mannheimer keeping the couple’s home in Westlake. He was ordered to pay his ex-wife a cash settlement of $55,000. Neither party was ordered to pay spousal or child support.

But even after the divorce, tensions continued with the couple frequently bickering about custody arrangements, according to later court documents regarding custody issues.

Mannheimer’s au pair described his employer as a nice, normal guy who had a volatile relationship with his ex-wife.

“I met her three or four times,” Honisch said. “The feeling was that she wanted [the son] full-time.”

The boy spent every other week with a different parent, Honisch said, adding that when Morrisset would pick up or drop off her son at Mannheimer’s home she refused to talk to her ex-husband and communicated only by handing him letters.

Honisch, who was interviewed by detectives several days ago, said Mannheimer and his son were at home watching television the night before Morrisset was found beaten and unconscious.

Mannheimer, Honisch added, was also home Sunday morning, Sept. 12, waiting for his ex-wife to pick up their son for a custodial visit that was to start about noon.

“He was confused that she didn’t come pick him up,” Honisch said of Mannheimer’s mood that Sunday.

Linda Morrisset was found that Sunday morning in a hallway in her home by a family nanny. Morrisset’s baby was in the home during the attack, authorities said.

When asked whether Mannheimer expressed surprise upon learning of the assault on his ex-wife, Honisch said, “No.”

“For him, it doesn’t matter. They are divorced,” Honisch said.

Richard Morrisset, contacted at his home Tuesday, said he and his wife were aware of Mannheimer’s arrest, but declined to comment.

*

Neighbors of Mannheimer described him as a pleasant guy.

Patrick Hayden, a Moorpark College student whose family has lived next door to Mannheimer for a dozen years, said Mannheimer was an active father who doted on his son.

Hayden said Mannheimer would go to his son’s nearby grade school, and when classes let out he would ride home on bicycles with the boy.

As recently as a few weeks ago, Hayden and his mother were at Mannheimer’s house for a barbecue to celebrate the end of Mannheimer’s bowling season. Mannheimer was on a league that played at a bowling alley in Simi Valley, Hayden said.

Another neighbor who said he has known Mannheimer for 20 years said Mannheimer always waved and smiled when he drove by and that it appeared Mannheimer enjoyed doing home-improvement projects.

A flower bush and trimmed hedges line the driveway of Mannheimer’s light brown home, which sits in the quiet, upscale North Ranch neighborhood north of the Ventura Freeway. A pair of stately trees line the small walkway to a pair of front doors.

Sheriff’s investigators are expected to release further details on the case during a news conference today.

Dirmann is a Times staff writer; Wolcott is a Times Community News reporter. Times staff writer Tracy Wilson also contributed to this report.