(Los Angeles) Two aunts of the Menendez brothers, famous in the United States for having killed their wealthy parents in 1989, demanded their release from a judge on Monday, in this almost 35-year-old case, revived by a Netflix series.
Updated yesterday at 5:15 p.m.
Paula RAMON
Agence France-Presse
Erik and Lyle Menendez, currently imprisoned under the minimum life sentence, “never knew, come evening, if they would be raped by their father [dans la nuit] “, explained their aunt Joan VanderMolen. “It’s time for them to come home. »
The two brothers made headlines by killing their parents, José and Mary Louise Menendez, in their posh family home in Beverly Hills.
Their trial, one of the first broadcast on television, even before that of American football player OJ Simpson, remained engraved in the collective American memory.
Prosecutors had accused the two young men, aged 18 and 21 at the time of the events, of having murdered their parents to inherit their fortune of 14 million dollars.
The brothers presented these murders as a desperate attempt at self-defense, claiming to have been raped for years by their father.
The fiction series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story as well as a documentary produced by Netflix have recently revived interest in this case, in a world where the #metoo movement has changed the perception of victims of sexual violence.
Frenzy
The case is causing a real frenzy: the online mobilization in favor of the two brothers is supported by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and the house where the murder took place is now assailed by curious people coming to take photos in front of the facade.
On Monday, many people lined up even before daybreak in front of the court to win the right to attend the hearing, where the 16 seats reserved for the public were the subject of a lottery.
“No child should have to go through what Erik and Lyle went through…and it breaks my heart that my sister knew and did nothing about it,” insisted Mme VanderMolen, Mary Louise’s sister.
“I wish they would come home,” added through tears their other aunt, Terry Baralt, sister of José Menendez, a Cuban immigrant who had made his fortune and ran a music label.
Erik and Lyle, now aged 53 and 56, were scheduled to speak via video conference. But technical problems prevented them from doing so.
The defense of the two brothers requests their release, in light of new elements which would render their conviction for murder void: a letter from the time when Erik spoke of his father’s sexual assaults to a cousin before the murder, as well as the testimony of ‘an ex-singer of boys band Latino, who explains having been drugged and raped by José Menendez in the 1980s.
The judge continued the suspense on Monday, refusing to rule on this request. He set a new hearing for January 30 and 31.
” Hope ”
“We hope that at the end of this period or a little sooner, we will obtain the release of the Menendez brothers,” declared their lawyer Mark Geragos, leaving the court.
Outgoing Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon recently ruled in favor of a re-evaluation of their convictions and initiated proceedings that could lead to their parole.
But his newly elected successor, Nathan Hochman, is considered stricter and his recommendations will weigh heavily. The postponement until the end of January should in particular allow it to carry out its own re-examination of the case.
The defense also submitted a request for clemency for the two brothers to California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Among the crowd present Monday, Nick Bonanno, a former high school classmate of Erik Menendez, hoped that American society would learn “lessons” from this affair.
“When children talk to their cousins or their friends [de violences sexuelles]they need to know that it’s okay to talk about it and ask for help,” he told AFP.
The two brothers “are hopeful,” said journalist Robert Rand, who wrote a book on the case and is in regular contact with them.
“It could last six months, eight months, a year, but they will eventually come out,” he wants to believe.
