Posted on 05/25/2002 2:08:50 AM PDT by 2Trievers
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:34 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The defense in the Michael Skakel murder trial brought back a prosecution witness Friday in an effort to shake her contention that Skakel did not leave Belle Haven with his brothers and cousins the night Martha Moxley was killed.
The effort met with scant success.
Andrea Shakespeare Renna did not depart from her assertion that Skakel was not in the car with Jimmy (Terrien) Dowdle, Rushton Skakel Jr. and John Skakel when it left the Skakel driveway at about 9:30 the night of Oct. 30, 1975.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctnow.com ...
Kennedy sitter relives painful times
by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
Friday, May 24, 2002
NORWALK, Conn. - She's 24 years old now and her blond hair has gone back to brown. She lives out of state, is going to college to become a teacher and isn't in touch with most of the people she knew back in the 1990s.
But yesterday Marisa Verrochi, the Cohasset babysitter at the center of the explosive Michael Kennedy sex scandal, was forced to take the stand in a Connecticut courtroom and relive the worst days of her young life.
Verrochi was called by attorneys for Michael Skakel, who befriended the babysitter in the mid-1990s after learning that his cousin, the late Michael Kennedy, had begun having sex with the girl when she was just 14. Verrochi was Kennedy's Cohasset neighbor, and her parents were close to Kennedy and his wife. She often watched the Kennedy's three children.
``Is it fair to say that your acquaintance with Michael Skakel began under particularly distressing circumstances for you?'' prosecutor Jonathan Benedict asked Verrochi.
``That is correct,'' she replied.
``You were certainly in the middle of a personal and family mess?'' he asked.
``Yes,'' she replied.
``Involving Michael Kennedy?''
``Yes.''
It was the first time Verrochi spoke publicly about the massive sex scandal that engulfed the news in the late 1990s, made Kennedy the subject of a statutory rape investigation and helped drive his older brother, Joe, out of the Massachusetts governor's race.
Michael Kennedy, who died in a 1997 skiing accident, was never charged in the case because his teenage lover declined to testify against him.
Skakel, her confidant at the time, is charged with the 1975 murder of his neighbor, Martha Moxley, who was beaten to death with a golf club on Halloween Eve.
In the late 1990s, Connecticut investigators hunted down Verrochi in Florida to question her about an alleged confession Skakel made during a party in South Boston.
``They came to my place of work,'' Verrochi testified nervously. ``I had left everything behind and was on my way to my new life and all of a sudden it all came back to me.''
Verrochi testified for about a half-hour yesterday, mostly involving her recollection - or lack thereof - of the Southie party. As she left the courthouse with her attorney, Verrochi was surrounded by reporters and cameramen, but she refused to speak. A spokeswoman for Marisa later said the former babysitter was ``totally relieved'' to have her date in court behind her.
``I think she did very well,'' said Nancy Sterling, who does public relations for Verrochi's Boston attorneys, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo. ``It was very difficult and although she has created a new and very good life for herself, it's hard for her to go back and relive those days.''
Up until she walked into the courtroom, prosecutors were betting that Skakel's attorney Michael ``Mickey'' Sherman wouldn't put Verrochi on the stand.
``They think she will remind the jury of the victim,'' said a source.
In fact, there had already been testimony that some of Verrochi's friends believe that Skakel befriended Marisa out of feelings of guilt about another 15-year-old blond girl - Martha Moxley. So it came as somewhat of a surprise to the prosecution when Verrochi showed up in court with cropped brown hair, not the longish blond 'do she had worn in her teens.
When Verrochi, who wore black slacks, a black sweater and white tank top, arrived in the courtroom, Skakel got up from the defense table and walked over to greet her.
``Long time, no see,'' he said smiling.
Skakel's brother gave her a hug.
Verrochi testified that Skakel took her ``under his wing'' during the sex scandal, stood up for her and tried to get her help. But she said she hasn't spoken to him in more than a year.
Sterling said that in all their time together, Skakel never made any incriminating admissions about his role in Moxley's death to Verrochi.
``Obviously she knew that this was something that had happened in his life,'' Sterling said. ``But there was never any discussion about specifics.''
Skakel's attorney said he expects to wrap up his case by the middle of next week. As yet, none of Skakel's Kennedy relatives has attended the trial, and it was a sure bet that they wouldn't show up yesterday when Verrochi was scheduled to take the stand.
That sordid chapter of Kennedy lore is one the clan would just as soon forget.
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