The woman who helped police break the Menendez brothers murder case recanted, saying her psychologist ex-lover brainwashed her into giving damaging testimony.
"I was suffering from the same kind of thing people who are prisoners of war come back with," Judalon Smyth said Tuesday, alleging that she was "implanted" with false memories by Dr. L. Jerome Oziel.Prosecutors accused her of lying in an attempt to discredit Oziel, who is the prosecution's star witness.
Erik Menendez, 22, and Lyle, 25, are charged in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slay-ings of Jose and Kitty
Menendez in their Beverly Hills mansion.
The brothers say years of sexual and psychological abuse from their parents drove them to commit the killings. The prosecution says they killed out of hatred and greed.
Jurors last week heard a tape of a therapy session in which the brothers are heard telling Oziel that their mother's killing was an act of mercy.
Smyth, called by the defense, acknowledged that in 1990 she told prosecutors she overheard the brothers' confessing to the 1989 slayings and threatening Oziel's life.
She says now she overheard only "bits and pieces" and heard about the threats only from Oziel.
"I was brainwashed," she said. "I was told over and over, `Judalon, this is what you heard.' "
Smyth also accused the district attorney's office of abandoning her after she accused Oziel of raping and drugging her "because they wanted him as a witness."
Oziel has denied wrongdoing.
"You've finally succeeded in what you wanted," said Deputy District Attorney Pamela Bozanich, "to get a national forum to slander Dr. Oziel. That's what you wanted."
"No," said Smyth. "I wanted justice."
In one of many bizarre twists of the five-month-old trial, the prosecution was placed in the position of attacking a witness whose disclosures triggered the arrest of the defendants.
A state licensing board has charged Oziel with assaults on Smyth and two other women and is considering lifting his license to practice.