NORWALK, Conn. — Two former friends of Michael Skakel testified Monday that Skakel told them in separate conversations four years apart that he did not kill Martha Moxley but was up in a tree masturbating on the night in 1975 when his 15-year-old neighbor was murdered.

One of the two witnesses, filmmaker Michael Meredith of New York, testified that Skakel told him he got down out of the tree after watching his older brother, Thomas Skakel, cut across a yard and head toward the Moxley home in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich.

If the testimony is believed by jurors, it could damage the defense's claim that Skakel went straight to bed after spending several hours at his cousin's house on the other side of Greenwich on the evening of Oct. 30, 1975.

Martha's jeans and underwear were pulled down to her ankles when her body was discovered lying face down at about 12:15 p.m. on Oct. 31, 1975. She was beaten to death with a golf club that was once used by Skakel's deceased mother, Ann Skakel.

Meredith, the son of former NFL player and sportscaster Don Meredith, met Skakel in the mid-1980s when they both worked on U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy's congressional campaign. Meredith and Skakel learned that they shared something in common: their dislike for the tactics used at Elan, a residential school for troubled youths in Poland Springs, Maine, where they had both spent time.

Meredith said he was a frequent guest at the Skakel home in Connecticut during the summer of 1987, when both were collaborating on an ill-fated class-action lawsuit to get Elan shut down. Prosecutors say Skakel admitted to killing Martha while at Elan in 1978, but the defense is going to ask jurors to conclude that the statements did not amount to a confession and were the product of brutality and browbeating by staff members and residents who employed questionable tactics to get students to confront their problems.

Meredith did not meet Skakel at Elan but he testified that he learned about the Moxley murder and talked to Skakel about it in late summer of 1987. According to Meredith, Skakel said he climbed a tree outside Martha's window, could see her through the window and masturbated. "I guess I was in a bit of shock and I didn't pursue the conversation," Meredith testified.

Skakel's childhood best friend, however, testified that he believed Skakel was referring to the large pine tree under which Martha's body was found when he had a conversation with Skakel in 1991. The tree was on the Moxley property, but not near the house. Skakel was trying to renew the friendship when the old friend, Andrew Pugh, admitted that he had reservations about doing so because the Moxley murder was still unsolved, according to testimony.

Pugh said he asked Skakel point blank if he was involved with killing the girl.

"He said, 'No I wasn't, but a strange thing happened. I was up in the tree that night masturbating,'" Pugh said.

Pugh also corroborated other prosecution witnesses who testified that Skakel had a "crush" on Martha but she did not seem interested in him. Prosecutors contend that Skakel killed Martha because she spurned his advances and was seen flirting with Thomas Skakel at about 9:30 p.m. on the night of the killing.

Jurors have heard one witness testify that Skakel confessed to killing Martha while at Elan. Another Elan witness's pretrial testimony that Skakel confessed was read to the jury because the witness died of a heroin overdose last year. Several witnesses also testified that Skakel said he did not know if he was responsible but thought either he or his brother had done it.

Meredith, like many of the prosecution's non-police witnesses, brought baggage with him to Norwalk Superior Court.

"I recall that it is a lengthy and vast arrest record," Meredith, 34, said of his troubled past. "I had a reckless youth. I was addicted to drugs. I had a famous father ... I just don't know why."

Defense lawyer Mickey Sherman and Meredith sparred over Meredith's conviction record, which included burglaries and an incident in which Meredith stole a Ferrari and destroyed it. Meredith answered "no" tersely when Sherman asked the witness if he had ever given police the name "George Bush" when he was being arrested.

When Meredith added several gratuitous comments to his testimony to show his annoyance with Sherman, the defense lawyer asked Meredith why he seemed to be testifying to the large press contingent in the courtroom.

"Is there anything else you want to tell the folks out there?" Sherman asked.

"I don't like looking at you because you are such an ambulance-chasing creep," Meredith shot back.

Moments later, Meredith offered, "The whole thing really disinterests me, to tell you the truth. The whole thing is a circus."

Outside the courthouse, Dorthy Moxley, the victim's mother, said she was disturbed by what she called an effort by the defense to "twist" the testimony. Speaking in her most emotional tone since testimony began May 7, Moxley told reporters that she still "feels good" about the case but does not like some of the things she has seen in the courtroom.

Moxley said she hopes people remember that the trial is about the death of her daughter, Martha, who would have been 41 years old had she lived. "She was beautiful. She was a wonderful child," Dorthy Moxley said. "If we let one person get away with this kind of thing, how many more will?"

On Monday, jurors also heard the wife of deceased witness Gregory Coleman testify that the former Elan student once swore that Skakel would not get away with Martha's murder. Elizabeth Coleman said that Gregory Coleman, who died of a drug overdose last year, was watching a tabloid television program in the mid-1990s that questioned whether Thomas Skakel was Martha's killer.

Elizabeth Coleman said her husband insisted that it was Michael Skakel, not Thomas, who committed the crime and that he knew because Michael Skakel admitted it to him at Elan in 1978. "He was talking to the television. I know it sounds strange ..." Elizabeth Coleman said. "He said, 'You thought you'd get away with this but now your time is up.'"

Jurors previously learned from a transcript of Gregory Coleman's pretrial testimony that he did not contact investigators, but they called him following Coleman's appearance on a Rochester, N.Y., news program. In pretrial testimony, however, Coleman contradicted his own statement in the interview that the first words he ever heard Skakel say were, "I am going to get away with murder. I am a Kennedy."

Skakel's father is the brother of Ethel Kennedy.

Prosecutors are expected to rest Tuesday or Wednesday. Before then, the jury may hear testimony from Richard Hoffman, who collaborated with Skakel on a proposal for an ill-fated book entitled, "Dead Man Talking: A Kennedy Cousin Comes Clean." The prosecution may wrap its case by having jurors listen to portions of many hours of recordings Hoffman made while interviewing Skakel for the book.

Testimony resumes Tuesday at 10 a.m.