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Court of Appeal:
Judge Rejects Menendez Brothers’ Petition for New Trial
By Kimber Cooley, associate editor
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has denied a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Erik and Lyle Menendez, rejecting their bid for a new trial based on what the inmates describe as newly discovered evidence.
On Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan said that the “purported new evidence…slightly corroborates that petitioners were sexually abused” but does not “negate the finding of premeditation and deliberation” relating to the 1989 slaying of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, inside their Beverly Hills home.
The petition, filed on May 3, 2023, requested relief under Penal Code §1473, which provides that “[a] writ of habeas corpus may be prosecuted” if “new evidence exists that is presented without substantial delay…and is sufficiently material and credible that it more likely than not would have changed the outcome of the case.”
In the filing, Erik and Lyle Menendez pointed to two pieces of new evidence—a handwritten letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez in 1988 to his cousin Andy Cano, describing sexual abuse by the boys’ father, and a declaration filed by Roy Rosselló, a former member of a 1980s pop band Menudo, prepared after he came forward about his own experiences in connection with a Peacock docuseries titled “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.”
Abuse Allegations
Rosselló alleges that he was sexually abused by the group’s creator, Edgardo Díaz, as well as by José Menendez, who was an executive at RCA Records at the time of the band’s success. The petition was filed the day after the show premiered on the Peacock streaming service.
The brothers asserted that the new allegations corroborate their longstanding claim that the killings were an act of imperfect self-defense after facing years of abuse and fear that they would be killed if they exposed the truth. In the petition, filed by Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos and Berkeley-based defense counsel Cliff Gardner, they allege:
“[T]he new evidence not only shows that Jose Menendez was very much a violent and brutal man who would sexually abuse children, but it strongly suggests that—in fact—he was still abusing Erik Menendez as late as December 1988. Just as the defense had argued all along.”
In 1996, the brothers were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for their parents’ murders. The sentence was revised in May when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced the term to 50 years to life; in August, a state board denied parole to both defendants.
District Attorney Response
Then-Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón recommended the resentencing in October, the month before he was voted out of office. His successor, Nathan Hochman, fought the effort and, in August, submitted a filing opposing the habeas petition for a new trial, asserting:
“There are few murder cases in which the evidence of planning and premeditation is as stark as that presented in this case. Petitioners confessed on tape to murdering their parents….They consistently framed their planning of the murders as a ‘decision’ that they had arrived at over a period of time. In those conversations, Petitioners never mentioned the alleged abuse that they now claim is central to this case.”
In the filing, the district attorney questioned whether the letter could be considered “newly discovered evidence” when it was purportedly written by one of the defendants eight months before the trial and remarked:
“Moreover, the lack of credibility of the Cano Letter is in full alignment with the Petitioners’ documented history of deceit, lies, fabricating evidence, and suborning perjury in this case.”
Calling the Rosello allegations “[e]ven more ancillary,” the prosecutor pointed out that the “Petitioners admit that they only learned about this information…30 years after the murders” and so “it would not be relevant to the jury’s evaluation of their individual states of mind in August 1989, when they conspired to kill…their parents.”
Agreeing with the district attorney’s view of the evidence, Ryan wrote in the order denying the petition:
“The evidence alleged here is not so compelling that it would have produced a reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror or supportive of an imperfect self-defense instruction.”
Lyle Menendez responded to Monday’s decision on his public Facebook page, calling the ruling “disappointing” and saying:
“To claim that another rape victim of Jose Menendez would not have affected the decision of at least one juror is quite the exercise in mental gymnastics.
“And to claim that the writing of Erik was also meaningless would likewise get a gold medal in the mental gymnastics category.”
In a press conference held yesterday afternoon, Hochman called the brothers’ petition “baseless” and said:
“What Judge Ryan did yesterday,…in agreeing with our ultimate decision, [ended], for now,…the meritless motion the Menendez brothers filed….So now we have the resentencing/parole course has not resulted in the Menendezes being released….We have the habeas petition now that is ended….I trust that the appellate courts will reach the same result that Judge Ryan has reached here and find it utterly meritless.”
A clemency request by each brother is under consideration by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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