Amid the success of Ryan Murphy’s controversial series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, a new court hearing for the Menendez brothers is set for November 29 this year.
After nearly three decades since the two were convicted for murdering their parents, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced in a press conference on October 3 that Erik and Lyle Menendez’s case is subject to reevaluation following the discovery of new evidence.
“We have been given evidence. We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member talking about him being the victim of molestation,” Gascón said.
The new evidence that surfaced supports the claim of Lyle and Erik that they were allegedly molested by Jose Menendez, their father.
The defense attorney of the brothers said that the evidence submitted includes a letter that was written by Erik to his cousin, Andy Cano, about eight months before the murder, in December 1998.
Gascón added that the county district got evidence provided by the defense through their lawyer that a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo alleged that Jose Menendez also molested him.
On April 2023, Roy Roselló alleged that the brothers’ father sexually assaulted him as a teenager.
A sworn affidavit filed in 2023 says that Roselló, as a teenager, visited Jose Menendez in his home in 1983 or 1984.
Roselló alleged that Jose took him to a room and raped him, he added that he had a glass of wine and that he felt like he didn’t have control over his body.
The band member also stated in the affidavit that Jose abused him sexually in two different other incidents.
“I know what he did to me in his house, […] That’s the man here that raped me… That’s the pedophile,” Roselló said in the Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, according to People.
“We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information, but we’re here to tell you is that we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination based on a resentencing side, whether they deserve to be resentenced, even though they were clearly the murderers because they have been in prison for years and they have paid back their dues to society,” Gascón said.
He added that if the court had received the evidence that wasn’t presented at the time, the jury would, perhaps, have come to a different verdict.
The new hearing set late this year could lead to a resentencing or a retrial for the brothers, but there hasn’t been any decision yet, he also said.
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