LOS ANGELES : Release of Transcripts in Menendez Case Upheld
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The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a judge’s decision allowing the release of grand jury transcripts in the case of two Beverly Hills brothers accused of killing their multimillionaire parents.
The high court affirmed an appeals panel, which found in January that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance Ito “did not abuse (his) discretion” in allowing portions of the transcript from a hearing involving Erik Menendez, 22, and Lyle Menendez, 25, to be made public.
The brothers were indicted on four criminal counts for allegedly conspiring to kill Jose Menendez, 45, an executive with LIVE Entertainment Inc. of Van Nuys, and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, 44. They were murdered Aug. 20, 1989, in the family room of their mansion, where they had been eating ice cream and watching a movie.
Ito ruled that certain testimony from the transcript should be cut out, and that certain physical evidence presented to the grand jury be sealed. But defense attorneys wanted the entire transcript withheld until verdicts in the case are reached.
Ito ordered testimony from three witnesses--including the brothers’ psychotherapist, Jerome Oziel--excised from the grand jury transcript.
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Correction
Mary Louise (Kitty) Menendez was 47 when she died, not 44.
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