Friend: Skakel watched victim from tree Incident occurred night of Moxley’s death

NORWALK, Conn. – A childhood friend of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel and the son of football great Don Meredith both testified Monday that Skakel told them he had masturbated in a tree outside Martha Moxley’s window the October 1975 night she was killed.

Skakel, 41, is charged with beating Moxley to death with a golf club later traced to a set owned by the Skakel family. Both Skakel and Moxley were 15 at the time. Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, could face life in prison if convicted.

Michael Meredith, 34, of New York City testified Monday that he met Skakel while working on Joseph Kennedy’s congressional campaign in 1986. They discovered that both had attended the Elan School, a residential substance abuse treatment center in Poland Spring, Maine.

Meredith said he and Skakel discussed filing a class-action lawsuit against Elan.

“We both felt the place was a concentration camp and was destroying kids,” Meredith said.

The two spent the bulk of the summer of 1987 at the Skakel home in Greenwich planning that suit, Meredith said. During a conversation, Skakel said he was innocent of the murder but said he had been masturbating in the tree the night of the killing, Meredith said.

He said Skakel told him he could see Moxley dressing or leaving the shower through the window.

Meredith said the remarks alarmed him and he left the Skakel house the following day.

“There was a fear factor,” Meredith said. “I thought Michael Skakel had a violence boiling under his skin. I was worried about the Martha Moxley situation. The whole situation became very unsettling to me.”

During a combative cross-examination, defense lawyer Michael Sherman noted Meredith’s lengthy criminal record for burglary and other crimes.

Meredith accused Sherman of leaking his name to the media and called the defense lawyer “an ambulance-chasing creep.”

Andrew Pugh, who described himself as Skakel’s best friend during their childhood, also said Skakel had told him about the tree incident.

He said he and Skakel ran into each other at church in 1991 and Skakel called to renew the friendship.

“I expressed some reservations about doing that,” Pugh said. “I told him I had some concerns about his involvement in Martha’s murder.”

He said Skakel denied involvement, then told him about the tree incident

Pugh said he was contacted a short time later by a private detective agency hired by the Skakel family to try and clear Michael and his older brother, Thomas, as suspects. He said Skakel encouraged him to meet with the agency, but said he never did so.

Pugh said Michael Skakel had a crush on Moxley and said he once saw them kissing, but said Moxley did not appear to return Skakel’s affection.

“She didn’t seem as interested,” Pugh said.

Earlier Monday, the widow of a man who alleged that Skakel confessed to Moxley’s murder backed up her late husband’s testimony with her own.

Gregory Coleman died last year after using drugs in Rochester, N.Y. He had earlier testified that while he and Skakel were students at Elan, Skakel once told him: “I’m going to get away with murder, because I’m a Kennedy.”

Portions of his testimony were read into the record on Friday and Monday. Elizabeth Coleman said Monday that her husband first told her about the confession when they met in 1986.

“He told me about a school he attended and that he had first met this kid at Elan that had murdered a girl,” Mrs. Coleman said. “He had told him he had murdered a girl with a golf club.”

Mrs. Coleman also said she and her husband watched a television show about the case in the mid-1990s.

“He said to me, ‘Oh my God,’ and then he said, ‘You thought you’d get away with this, but now your time is up,”‘ she testified.

On cross-examination, Sherman highlighted inconsistencies in the descriptions of Skakel’s statements.

Elizabeth Coleman said her husband told her Skakel said, “I’m a Skakel and I’m related to the Kennedys,” while Gregory Coleman testified that Skakel said, “I’m a Kennedy.”

Asked why Gregory Coleman had not reported Skakel’s comments to police earlier, Mrs. Coleman said he thought the case had been closed.