Citing ‘new’ evidence, judge orders DA’s office to explain why Menendez brothers should stay in prison

Attorneys for the Menendez brothers are seeking yet another way to get them out of prison.

Responding to a request from Menendez lawyers, a Los Angeles County judge has ordered the District Attorney’s Office to prove why the brothers — who fatally shot their parents in 1989 — should remain incarcerated.

The judge’s order, dated July 7, notes that lawyers for Lyle and Erik Menendez have two pieces of evidence they say could have changed the outcome of the brothers’ second murder trial. One is a letter from Erik Menendez to a cousin, Andy Cano, that the lawyers say corroborates the brothers’ claims that they were sexually abused by their father, Jose Menendez, for years. The other is a declaration from Roy Rossello, a former member of the singing group Menudo, who said he was sexually assaulted by Jose Menendez in the 1980s.

In his order, Superior Court Judge William Ryan said the D.A.’s office had 30 days to respond.

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How we got here

This isn’t the first time the information related to Cano and Rosello have been discussed in court documents.

L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and his deputies have said both the letter to Cano and Rosello’s declaration are not new evidence. They have argued that neither is admissible in court and should not be considered.

Lawyers for the brothers, Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, have said the evidence refutes prosecutors’ arguments in trial and afterward that Jose Menendez was “not the kind of man” who would abuse his children.

The brothers shot and killed their parents in August 1989 at the family’s Beverly Hills home. Erik Menendez was 18 at the time of the murders. Lyle Menendez was 21. They are now 54 and 57, respectively.

After their arrests, Lyle and Erik Menendez long contended that they killings happened in self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father. They also said their mother knew about the molestations and that hers was a “mercy” killing.

Their claims were met with some skepticism at the time.

A jury at their first trial was unable to reach verdicts and the judge declared a mistrial. But they were convicted during a second trial in 1996, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Erik Menendez (left) is shown in 2016 and Lyle Menendez in 2018 in photos provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

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California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

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AP

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Chance of being released

In May, the brothers were resentenced to 50 years to life in prison, meaning they are now eligible for parole.

The decision came at the end of a Superior Court hearing in L.A., during which the lawyers for the brothers argued successfully that they no longer pose a risk to public safety.

After hearing the arguments, Judge Michael Jesic said it was time the brothers, who had been incarcerated for more than three decades, got an opportunity for release.

“I think it's pretty amazing what they’ve done,” said Jesic, referring to the brothers' rehabilitation work on themselves and others in prison.

It will be up to a state parole board to determine if and when the brothers are released. That hearing is now set to begin late August, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.