'It’s time to recognize the injustice': Family of Menendez brothers speak against life sentences
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — The family of Lyle and Erik Menendez, as well as their attorney, held a press conference on Wednesday to discuss prosecutors’ review of their convictions for murdering their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in Beverly Hills in 1989.
José Menendez’s niece, Anamaria Baralt, spoke at the press conference, where more than 20 extended family members gathered. She said her cousins were victims, and if their case were heard today, there is “no doubt in [her] mind that the sentencing would be different."
The Menendez brothers are currently serving life in prison.
“It’s time to recognize the injustice they’ve suffered and allow them the second chance they deserve,” she said. “Now we stand, both sides of the family united, sharing a new bond of hope…[we have] hope that this 34-year nightmare will end.”
Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen Vandermolen, was emotional as she took the stage.
“For many years, I struggled to come to terms with what happened to my sister’s family. It was a nightmare none of us could have imagined,” she said. “But as details of Lyle and Erik’s abuse came to light, it became clear that their actions — while tragic — were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father.”
“As their aunt, I had no idea the extent the of the abuse they suffered at the hands of my brother-in-law, none of us did,” Vandermolen continued. “Looking back, I can see the intention…they were just children who could have been protected but were instead brutalized in the most horrific ways. The truth is, Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them: by their parents, by the system, by society at large.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office previously announced they would be reevaluating the brothers’ convictions.
“I want to be clear; we have not conceded one way or the other,” L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón said on Oct. 3. “We’re not saying there was anything wrong with the original trial. We have been given evidence.”
“There is a possibility being alleged by his lawyers, not by us, that there was evidence that, had it been presented to the jury, the outcome of the trial would have been different,” he added.
One of the new pieces of evidence is a letter purportedly written by Erik Menendez that says in part: “I never know when [the abuse] is going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night, I stay up thinking [my father] might come in.”
Another allegation against José Menendez has surfaced from a former member of the boy band Menudo; Roy Roselló claimed he was raped by Menendez while he was a record executive.
His allegations were detailed in the three-part documentary series “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” and the brothers themselves were subjects of a Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” which reignited public interest in the case.
Relatives of the brothers have said for years that the brothers were raised in a turbulent household and were subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents.
Alison Triessl, a legal analyst at Nexstar's KTLA, attended Calabasas High School with Erik and described his father as a “tyrant.”
“I knew [Erik’s] dad…he was not a ray of sunshine,” Triessl said. “He was a very strict, very stern, very degrading father.”
“Was I in that bedroom? Do I know whether sexual abuse took place? I do not,” she continued. “But I do know that it was a house where their father was a tyrant.”
After their first trial ended in a hung jury in 1993, the brothers were retried in 1995; however, most of the sexual abuse claims were ruled inadmissible by the judge, meaning the jury never heard about them.
They were both eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Nearly three decades later, after renewed interest and the announcement of the reexamination of their convictions, family members of the brothers are set to hold a press conference in front of the criminal courts in downtown Los Angeles to demand their release.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, filed a habeas petition last year arguing they should be released on the grounds that they have been rehabilitated after nearly 35 years in prison.
According to Loyola University law professor Jessica Levinson, a shift in perception over time could also affect the DA’s decision.
“I think that decades ago, we saw allegations of sexual abuse – particularly against young men – and maybe we didn’t view it as having much credibility, or particularly not a motive for murder,” she told KTLA Wednesday morning. “Now, I think our understandings of who can be a victim of sexual abuse have changed and what that can lead to has changed.”
Levinson also added that Gascón is facing a tough reelection campaign, and that talking about and reviewing the case could be a way to get his name in the news and win votes.
Two dozen relatives, as well as one of their celebrity advocates, Rosie O’Donnell, are expected to attend Wednesday afternoon’s press conference, and attorney Geragos is also slated to speak.
The family is hoping that the brothers can be released in time for the holidays.
During Wednesday's press conference, Brian Friedman, the attorney for the extended Menendez family, stated that the family is united in one message.
“This shouldn’t happen again, and this needs to stop now,” he said. “What needs to happen is the consideration of second chances, the consideration of abuse and changing what we know in our society to be wrong.”