Witness in Skakel Case Recants ’98 Statement

A friend of the Skakel family testified Wednesday she was mistaken when she told a grand jury that Michael Skakel made incriminating statements to his father about the 1975 slaying of Martha Moxley.

Skakel, 41, a Kennedy cousin, is charged with beating Moxley to death with a golf club in their Greenwich neighborhood in 1975 when both were 15.

Family friend Mildred Ix took the stand Wednesday after Skakel’s 78-year-old father, Rushton Skakel Sr., testified he could not remember the conversation he had with Ix in 1981. Rushton Skakel, the brother of Ethel Kennedy, suffers from dementia, his lawyer has said.

In 1998, Ix told a one-judge grand jury that Rushton Skakel said his son was concerned he may have had too much to drink the night of the slaying and could have forgotten killing Moxley.

Ix said then that Michael Skakel told his father he wanted to be given truth serum to help him.

On Wednesday, Ix said the elder Skakel had told her that his son wished to undergo a sodium pentothal test but never made the other statements.

“I know Rush never, ever heard from Michael that he ever killed anyone,” Ix said.

“I then assumed something that was really in my heart of hearts.

“I put in Rushton Skakel’s mouth what I actually thought.”

Her testimony angered John Moxley, the victim’s brother, who spoke to reporters outside the courtroom.

“I think it was boldfaced lies,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, an apparently confused Rushton Skakel said he could not remember the events surrounding Moxley’s death.

“I’m 78 years old; my memory is not as good as it was back in those years,” he told prosecutors.

Defense attorney Michael Sherman asked Rushton Skakel if he could recall what happened in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

“It was a very big incident, but I don’t remember the details,” Rushton Skakel said.

Prosecutors asked whether he remembered telling a neighbor in 1981 about incriminating comments made by his son. He said he did not.