Deliberations Begin in Beating Case

An accountant and suburban housewife, Linda Morrisset outwardly seemed an unlikely target for the savage attack that nearly ended her life three years ago.

Yet someone entered her Camarillo home through a sliding glass door on a cool September night and beat her over the head with a heavy metal flashlight.

Aside from a few necklaces, nothing was missing from the home.

As Morrisset languished in a coma for 16 days, police interrogated her ex-husband, Westlake Village businessman Lee Mannheimer, who had also been a suspect in an alleged 1993 murder-for-hire plot against Morrisset.

No criminal charges were filed in either case.

But now a Ventura County civil jury is being asked to decide whether Mannheimer brutally attacked his ex-wife after becoming enraged over a child custody mix-up.

The jury, which began deliberations Wednesday, will either hold Mannheimer responsible and put a financial price on his actions, or decide that Morrisset is so mentally limited by her injuries that she cannot recall the night of the attack or is lying about it.

Morrisset, 51, sued Mannheimer, 59, two years ago for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She is seeking more than $2 million in damages.

Nine of the 12 jurors must agree on a verdict. If they find Mannheimer maliciously beat his ex-wife, the case will advance to a second stage to determine an amount for punitive damages.

“Nobody else did this,” attorney Allen Ball, who represents Morrisset, told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday.

Holding an enlarged photograph of his client’s crushed skull, Ball told jurors Mannheimer entered Morrisset’s house and bashed her over the head.

As she crawled, the attack continued as Mannheimer missed his target and slammed the flashlight into the floor, Ball said. He said detectives identified four dents consistent with such blows.

“That is not done by a burglar,” Ball said. “That is done by someone with malice, ill will and intent. And the only reason someone broke into that house is to do this.”

But Mannheimer’s attorney, Greg Ramirez, told jurors there is no physical evidence linking his client to the bloody crime scene.

He argued that Mannheimer had an alibi for the time of the assault, and called the plaintiff’s theory of intent weak.

“Mr. Mannheimer did not have any motive to hurt his ex-wife in 1999,” Ramirez argued, noting the couple had been divorced for six years.

The lawyer cited testimony from his client and Mannheimer’s 12-year-old son, Maxx, who told jurors there was no custody mix-up the night of the attack.

“Mrs. Morrisset doesn’t have a perfect memory of that evening,” Ramirez said. “She couldn’t be expected to with the injuries she sustained.”

Throughout the three-week trial, Morrisset recounted a marriage that was rocky from the start and led to divorce in 1993. They shared custody of their only child, Maxx, and followed a firm schedule of custody exchanges.

On Sept. 11, 1999, Morrisset went to her ex-husband’s house in Westlake Village to pick up the boy, she told jurors. About an hour later, she said, Mannheimer entered her house and bludgeoned her.

Morrisset was found lying in a pool of blood the next morning by a housekeeper.

“He bashed my head in,” Morrisset testified, sitting before jurors in a wheelchair.

Morrisset told a nurse the same story when she awoke from a coma in the intensive care unit of St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, according to court testimony.

But a homicide investigator with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said Morrisset had given several inconsistent statements about the attack, including whether she saw her son and ex-husband that day and what her assailant was wearing.

Det. Tim Lorenzen further acknowledged that a search of Mannheimer’s home failed to turn up evidence. Mannheimer was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, but released four days later.

Adamant in his denial of wrongdoing, Mannheimer sued Morrisset for slander, but the case was recently dropped.

On the witness stand, Mannheimer denied beating his ex-wife and told jurors he was home asleep when the near-fatal assault occurred. A German au pair living with him at the time confirmed his account.

Mannheimer told jurors he had no motive to harm Morrisset.

But Morrisset’s lawyer tried to show that Mannheimer was so possessive of his son that he angrily lashed out at the boy’s mother. Ball also presented evidence of the alleged 1993 murder conspiracy to prove his motive theory.

A business associate of Mannheimer’s was arrested after telling law enforcement officers Mannheimer wanted his then-wife “to disappear.” Mannheimer was never arrested, and the associate was not charged with a crime.

On Wednesday, the couple sat a few feet apart as their lawyers summed up the case.

Mannheimer, dressed in a tweed jacket and sitting cross-legged at counsel table, shook his head in disagreement as Ball spoke.

Morrisset, wearing a pale pink sweater, nodded in agreement and smiled at jurors.

Brain-damaged and partially paralyzed, Morrisset can no longer work as an accountant. Her lost earnings are estimated at $1.5 million, her medical bills have cost $273,000, and her anticipated rehabilitation costs top $365,000, according to her attorney.

She wants Mannheimer to pay those costs, in addition to damages for her pain and suffering.

The Superior Court jury of four women and eight men began deliberations late Wednesday.