2024-10-15 22:50:03
Cooper Koch tuned into the Netflix documentary on Erik and Lyle Menendez, The Menendez Brothers, that released after his scripted series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. And while the actor who played Lyle Menendez in the Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan limited series was complimentary of the doc, he also questioned why the new evidence that is now under review by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office wasn’t included in the two-hour feature.
“I thought they did a great job, I thought they left out a couple of pieces of information that would have been great to have in there, which is the two pieces of new evidence that have come out, which is the letter that Erik wrote to his cousin Andy,” Koch said during a Tuesday visit to Watch What Happens Live. “And then also, a member of Menudo [Roy Rosselló] came out about also having been sexually molested by José Menendez.”
Menendez cousin Andres “Andy Cano” testified in 1993 during the first Menendez trial, which ended in a hung jury for Erik and Lyle, who were on trial for the 1989 Beverly Hills murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez. When Cano took the stand, he testified that Erik had told him that he was being molested by José.
The letter mentioned by Koch, however, wasn’t discovered until 2018 — decades years after the brothers’ 1996 conviction in their second trial. Trial journalist Robert Rand came upon the letter after Cano’s death, when Rand was invited to the house to sift through Cano’s belongings by his family. “And within 15 minutes, I found this letter, and I looked at it and I said, ‘Oh, my God, this could be really important to the case,’” Rand recently told The Hollywood Reporter of the new evidence, which supports the brothers’ self-defense claims of ongoing abuse from their father.
The letter was written when Erik was 17 years old in December 1988, about eight months before the killings, and never brought to the mid-1990s trials.
The other piece of evidence mentioned by Koch involves new witness Rosselló, who came forward after the trials to allege that he was sexually abused as a teenager by José in the early 1980s. Rosselló was a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, which had been signed to RCA Records where José was a top executive at the time.
Rosselló came forward with the allegation in the April 2023 Peacock docuseries, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed. His claim, along with the Cano letter, were both included in the habeas corpus petition filed by Erik and Lyle’s attorneys the following month, in May 2023, that is now under review. L.A. District Attorney George Gascón has set a hearing for Nov. 29 to share their decision on if the new evidence could lead to a resentencing of the Menendez brothers, now in their 50s, who are currently serving life in prison without parole.
When speaking to THR about The Menendez Brothers documentary, Campfire Studios producers Ross Dinerstein and Rebecca Evans explained why they didn’t include the new evidence in their feature, saying they were leaving that up to the attorneys currently fighting with the habeas petition.
“It all has come down to their lawyers more than anything, and how they’re dealing with the new evidence, how they’re dealing with the new habeas petition. That’s where I feel like the crux of the fight is really happening,” Evans told THR. “The habeas was filed in 2023, and so for us, when we were making the documentary, we felt like, we’re not here to litigate a case. We’re not here to present evidence, or new evidence in that way, alongside the attorneys.”
Adding of the Rosselló allegation, “I felt like, this is Erik and Lyle’s story. It’s not really a story about the other guy in the Menudo case. I think those are things audiences will learn about in litigation and the news, but we really wanted to focus on the brothers.”
Also during his appearance on Andy Cohen’s Bravo late-night show, Koch spoke about meeting the incarcerated Menendez brothers in person at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility on a visit brokered by Kim Kardashian, who has been advocating for the brothers’ release, to discuss prison reform before Monsters released.
When previously talking about that meeting with THR, Koch spoke of the moment when he locked eyes with Erik, the brother he portrayed for Monsters. “We walked in the [prison’s] gymnasium, and the first person that I saw was Erik. And we locked eyes, and he smiled and I smiled, and we hugged each other. And it was really, really powerful and emotional. It was an amazing experience. And he — both of them were so kind, and they’re so normal.”
Koch said Erik was complimentary of what he heard about his praiseworthy performance in the fifth episode, “The Hurt Man,” where Koch detailed a lifetime of abuse in a 33-minute monologue and told THR of their discussions about the series. He also said he hopes the brothers receive a resentencing.
“They’ve done so much amazing work in prison,” he said. “Erik teaches meditation. He teaches speech classes. They’re both incredible people. I think back then, people just didn’t believe that sexual abuse between males was something that you could believe and the easier pill to swallow was that they killed their parents for money. But now, after so much time, I think people are more open to understanding that something like that did happen.”
Menendez attorneys Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, meanwhile, are hosting a press conference ahead of the November hearing, on Wednesday, with nearly two dozen Menendez family members, as well as Hollywood friend and advocate Rosie O’Donnell, in what the attorneys described as a “powerful show of unity.”
