Nearly two dozen of Lyle and Erik Menendez's family members gathered for a press conference and what they describe as a "show of unity" in front of an Los Angeles criminal courthouse on Oct. 16.
In her statement, the brothers' aunt, Joan VanderMolen, said the “outpouring of support” the brothers received in recent weeks led the family to launch a "formal initiative."
Anamaria Baralt, the niece of Jose Menendez, spoke to the event's intentions.
“Both sides of the family, united, sharing a new bond of hope. Hope that with the reexamination of the case a new outcome will be reached. Hope that this 34-year nightmare will end and we will be reunited as a family,” Baralt said.
They were joined by the brothers' defense attorney, Mark Geragos.
Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989.
The press conference comes almost a month after the release of "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story," a controversial Ryan Murphy-produced Netflix series that takes a kaleidoscopic look at the murders.
Further, the brothers' case is being reviewed by the L.A. District Attorney's office in light of new evidence. Geragos told NBC Los Angeles on Oct. 14 that the brothers were feeling “cautiously optimistic” about the evidence's impact on their case.
The Menendez brothers were first tried before two separate juries in a televised trial that ended in 1993 with two hung juries. Lyle and Erik Menendez's testimony about their father's alleged sexual abuse was deemed inadmissible at the second trial, which ended in a conviction in 1996.
Which family members were at the press conference?
A press release listed who among Lyle and Erik Menendez's family members gathered outside of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in LA for the press conference.
Speakers included Anamaria Baralt, the niece of Jose Menendez; Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez; Karen VanderMolen, niece of Kitty Menendez; and Brian A. Andersen Jr., nephew of Kitty Menendez.
Defense attorney Geragos and co-counsel Gardener will speak, as will Rosie O'Donnell.
Other attendees from the Menendez brothers' family include:
- Natascha Leonardo, niece of Jose Menendez
- Arnold VanderMolen, nephew of Kitty Menendez
- Kathleen Simonton, niece of Kitty Menendez
- Karen Copley, niece of Kitty Menendez
- Diane Hernandez, niece of Kitty Menendez
- Alicia Barbour, niece of Jose Menendez
- Erik VanderMolen, great nephew of Kitty Menendez
- Sarah Mallas, great niece of Kitty Menendez
- Alexander Hernandez, great niece of Kitty Menendez
Also listed are Sylvia Bolock, Rebecca Frascone and Tamara Goodell.
Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister, and Diane VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s niece and the brothers’ cousin, both participated in the recent Netflix documentary “The Menendez Brothers.” They were also interviewed in the Peacock documentary “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal, TODAY's parent company.
Of the two, only Joan VanderMolen was at the press conference.
Many family members testified at their televised first trial in 1992 and 1993, but Diane VanderMolen was the first defense witness to tell jurors about Jose Menendez’s alleged sexual abuse of the brothers, journalist Robert Rand wrote in his book “The Menendez Murders.”
She said during her testimony that Lyle, then 8, came to her basement room and told her that “he and his dad had been touching each other in the genitals.” Diane VanderMolen then told her aunt Kitty, whom she said didn’t believe her.
"It was never discussed after that," VanderMolen said. “‘I convinced myself I was in the wrong.”
Diane VanderMolen also testified that “unusual things” happened between the boys and their mother, Rand reported.
Other family members testified to Jose and Kitty Menendez's character. Teresa Baralt, Jose Menendez's sister, during the first trial said Jose could be "harsh" but did not see him "being abusive to the children."
"I just saw their ways of parenting to be completely different than mine," she testified, according to Rand's book.
What did Lyle and Erik Menendez's family members say at the press conference?
Relatives of both Jose Menendez and Kitty Menendez spoke, one after the other, at the press conference Oct. 16.
Across their testimony, they emphasized they believed the brothers were victims, not villains; that evidence of their fathers’ alleged sexual abuse should have been permitted as evidence at the trial; and that the brothers and their family had “suffered enough,” as Karen VanderMolen put it. The family members also shared memories from the brothers’ upbringing.
In her emotional testimony, Joan VanderMolen said for many years, she struggled to come to terms with what happened to her sister, Kitty Menendez, and her family.
“It was a nightmare none of us could have imagined. But as details of Lyle and Erik’s abuse came to light it became clear that their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father,” she said.
Joan VanderMolen said she had “no idea” about the extent of abuse they had suffered.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, in testimony shared at their first trial, said that they were abused by their father starting at 6. Lyle said the abuse spanned until he was 8; for Erik, it never stopped.
“Looking back I see the fear and tension their father had instilled in them. They were just children — children who could have been protected but were instead brutalized in the most horrific of ways,” she said.
Joan VanderMolen said the brothers had been “failed by the very people who should have protected them.”
Karen VanderMolen Copley, Joan VanderMolen’s daughter, said she grew up “knowing and feeling something wasn’t right.”
“The feeling in their house and the father-son interactions were just off. But it was not until the first trial that the full horror of what they had to live through came to light,” she said.
She continued, “Their sometimes misunderstood behaviors were cries for help that many of us wish we had responded to far earlier.”
Karen VanderMolen Copley said she forgives her cousins, and hopes they are able to hug her mom again one day.
“I have forgiven them forever because I know they were acting out of fear and desperation. These were children,” she said. “No child should have to endure that kind of pain. This abuse trapped them. It was painful and it terrified them. Their fathers’ abuse shattered their lives and their families’ lives.”
Brian Anderson, Kitty Menendez’s nephew, also said his cousins are “not the villains they are portrayed as” and they "deserve a second chance."
"A chance to heal, a chance to be free and a chance to live the rest of their lives without the shadow of their past hanging over them," he said.
What else have the Menendez brothers' family members shared recently?
Family members previously shared their thoughts on "Monsters," a dramatized Netflix series about the killings, in a Sept. 25 statement.
Like Erik Menendez, who had a scathing response to the show, 24 family members condemned the Ryan Murphy-produced series. The Sept. 27 statement, shared by Erik Menendez's wife Tammi Menendez, did not identity which family members had written or agreed with its sentiments.
The family members called the show “a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare.”
Murphy responded to the family's criticism in an interview with People, calling the series the “the best thing that has happened to the Menéndez brothers in 30 years.”
“I don’t know what story they would want to be told,” Murphy said. “How do you assassinate the character of two people who killed their own parents? I find that an interesting choice of words, and I don’t agree with it.”
He said the show thrust the case back into the spotlight, and before a more sympathetic public.
“A lot of people think that they were dealt a bad hand in that second trial, a lot of people think they should get a new trial, and I think having those conversations are good. And I know that from prison, the boys have told people in prison that they’re glad about this show because it is launching so many conversations. So, if we’re doing anything that can further a conversation about abuse and also ask the question is, ‘Was that second trial fair?’ then I did my job," he said.
In response to the press conference, Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Anderson, released a statement on Oct. 15 through his lawyer to the Los Angeles District Attorney saying he was “opposed to any resentencing.”
“Kitty Menendez’ brutal murder was not political. Jose Menendez’ vicious murder was not political. Erik and Lyle Menendez’ motive was pure greed,” Milton Anderson said.