BEATING SUIT CONSIDERED BY JURY.

Byline: - Grace Lee

Jurors began deliberations Wednesday in the case of a Newbury Park woman who sued her ex-husband after a criminal probe found insufficient evidence that he brutally beat her.

In closing arguments Wednesday, an attorney for Linda Morrisset told jurors that Westlake Village businessman Lee Mannheimer beat his ex-wife into a coma with a flashlight in September 1999 because he was acting out of revenge and anger.

Allen Ball, Morrisset's lawyer, said Mannheimer acted pathologically when he ``took a flashlight and beat her so severely he left dents on the floor.'' Mannheimer resented the child support he had to pay for his 9-year-old son and saw his ex-wife as an obstacle between them, Ball told jurors.

Mannheimer's attorney, Greg Ramirez, emphasized that there was no physical evidence linking Mannheimer to the attack and told jurors his client had no motive to harm his wife.

``I believe that Mrs. Morrisset in her heart thinks that Mr. Mannheimer assaulted her. But she is wrong,'' Ramirez said. ``The district attorney did not file charges in the case ... because there was no evidence linking Mr. Mannheimer to the crime.''

Morrisset, 51, sued ex-husband Mannheimer, 59, after a Sept. 11, 1999, attack that left her partially paralyzed and forced to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

Morrisset accused Mannheimer of the beating after she came out of a 16-day coma, leading to his arrest. He was subsequently released because of insufficient evidence. Mannheimer then sued her for slander and she filed suit two years ago accusing him of the nearly fatal beating.

Morrisset is seeking about $2.2 million to compensate the former accountant for loss of income and medical costs. In addition, she is seeking an unspecified amount to compensate her for emotional damage. Pointing to pictures of Morrisset before the attack as she sat astride a white horse, smiling, Ball urged the jury to consider all that the woman had lost in the attack.

Ball argued that Mannheimer's motive was rooted in a 1993 murder-for- hire plan that prompted federal prosecutors to focus on Mannheimer, though they did not arrest him in connection with the case.

Ramirez, however, called Mannheimer a doting father who would never have attacked his ex-wife in front of his son as the plaintiff's lawyer claimed. He also stressed that the 12-year-old son of the former couple has testified that he did not see his father attack his mother.

With the injuries Morrisset sustained, including emotional problems and difficulty with visual processing, she could not have an accurate memory of that night, Ramirez said.