Classmate: Skakel unsure of role

NORWALK, Conn. — Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel told classmates at a substance abuse treatment center he was drunk the night Martha Moxley was beaten to death and that he did not know whether he killed her, a former student testified Thursday.

Charles Seigan was the first of several former students at the Elan School expected to take the stand at Skakel's murder trial.

Earlier yesterday, a former limousine driver for the Skakel family testified that Skakel once told him he had done something "very bad" and had to either kill himself or get out of the country.

Skakel, 41, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, is charged with beating Moxley to death with a golf club in their wealthy Greenwich neighborhood in 1975 when they were both 15. He could get life in prison if convicted.

Seigan testified that Skakel's alleged involvement came up on several occasions at Elan during the late 1970s. The first time was during a group meeting of about 90 people called to confront Skakel about running away from Elan, Seigan said.

Joseph Ricci, the school's director, "blurted out" the possibility that Skakel killed someone, Seigan said.

During smaller group meetings, Skakel would say he was drunk and had a blackout the night of the murder, Seigan said.

"He would generally come to tears, shake his head and say, 'I don't know,' " Seigan said. "And there were other times when he was irritated with the questions."

Seigan described Elan as a "crazy place" where students were forced to take part in boxing sessions and publicly berate classmates. At general meetings, called to confront a specific person about a problem, students would stomp their feet and scream at the "victim," Seigan said.

Judge John F. Kavanewsky Jr. ruled prosecutors could present the written testimony of another Elan student, Gregory Coleman, who died last year after using drugs.

Coleman admitted during pretrial hearings that he was on heroin when he told a one-judge grand jury that Skakel confessed. But Coleman stuck by his statement that Skakel told him: "I'm gonna get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy."

The Skakels' former driver, Lawrence Zicarelli, said that in 1977, Michael Skakel was crying during a trip to the doctor's office in New York City and apologizing for his behavior.

Skakel and his father, Rushton Skakel, had been arguing that morning, Zicarelli said. Once in the city, Michael bolted from the car, but Zicarelli said he found him walking toward the doctor's office.

"He had done something very bad, and he had to either kill himself or get out of the country," Zicarelli testified.

Later, while stuck in traffic on the way back to Greenwich, Zicarelli said, Skakel twice bolted out of the car and ran to the side of a bridge. He said he managed both times to pull Skakel back to the car.

Zicarelli said he then asked Skakel what he had done that was so terrible. "He said if I knew what he had done, I would never talk to him again," Zicarelli said.

Zicarelli testified he gave two weeks' notice that day, and was immediately fired by Rushton Skakel.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Michael Sherman suggested Skakel may have been upset because he had slept in his dead mother's dress the night before.