{"id":103450,"date":"2025-08-23T04:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T04:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/103450\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T04:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T04:27:07","slug":"lyle-menendez-denied-parole-one-day-after-brother-erik-also-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/103450\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyle Menendez Denied Parole One Day After Brother Erik Also Rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA day after his younger brother was denied parole<\/a> at the conclusion of a grueling 10-hour hearing, Lyle Menendez<\/a> saw his own hopes of freedom after nearly 30 years behind bars evaporate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe panel has found today that there are still signs\u201d Menendez is a potential risk to the public, declared Parole Commissioner Julie Garland and Deputy Parole Commissioner Patrick Reardon to the older Menendez brother as he participated via video feed from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter going through the reasoning behind the denial and the violations that Menendez has been cited for while in prison, Garland offered a note of hope. \u201cThis denial is not \u2026the end,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way for you to spend some time to demonstrate, to practice what you preach about who you are, who you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter hours and hours of questioning and some chaos, the conclusion Friday by the two-person parole board brings to an end at least for the next few years, the Menendez brothers\u2019 hard fought battle the past 18 months to get out of prison after being sentenced to life without parole back in 1996 after two trials.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith so many members of the family in attendance today, like Thursday, the admittedly disappointed relatives proclaimed \u201cthis is not the end of the road.\u201d They went on to say of the brothers: \u201cBoth will go before the Board again, and their habeas petition remains under review. In the meantime, we know they will take time to reflect on the Board\u2019s recommendations and will continue to lead, mentor, and build programs that support rehabilitation and hope for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLike his brother Erik, who can\u2019t apply for another parole hearing until 2028, Lyle Menendez can seek a review of Friday\u2019s decision based on factual inaccuracies that may impact the final outcome \u2014 but the success of such a move could be a long shot. As it stands right now Lyle Menendez can\u2019t reapply for parole for 36 months. <\/p>\n

\n\tStill, after nearly 11 hours, at one point late in the day Friday it looked like today\u2019s proceedings might go off the rails as it as revealed audio of part of Thursday\u2019s hearing for Erik Menendez<\/a> has been released publicly.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s highly unusual,\u201d exclaimed Menendez attorney Heidi Rummel. \u201cIt\u2019s another attempt to make this a public spectacle,\u201d the lawyer emphatically added, calling the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation\u2019s release of audio without family members\u2019 permission a blow to the state\u2019s victims bill of rights. \u201cIt\u2019s ironic to me that we are sitting here for hours talking about Mr. Menendez following CDCR policy, and they are not following their own policy,\u201d Rummel went on to say, asking for an adjournment as she felt today\u2019s hearing had lost its impartiality.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Commissioners later told the hearing that the state has actually had a policy that anyone who requests an audio file of a hearing may receive it, and <\/p>\n

\n\tAs Menendez family members screamed at the Parole Board and the Deputy DA on the screens over the SNAFU, Rummel said \u201cwe came into these hearings hoping and expecting a fair and impartial hearing where Mr. Menendez could be heard, be considered and be understood.\u201d The attorney then, seeding what will surely be an attempt to overturn today\u2019s decision, told the hearing: \u201cAnd we have a public spectacle and this has exacerbated it twenty-fold. And we now have family members who are not going to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs has been well documented, then 21-year-old Princeton student Lyle and 19-year-old Erik murdered their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in the family\u2019s Beverly Hills home on the night of August 20, 1989. The brothers, who went back for more annunciation to reload and finish off their mother (which Lyle today like Erik yesterday now says he regrets) as she crawled away already wounded, have long insisted the fatal shootings were because of years of sexual abuse that both of them suffered at the hands of their record company exec father.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in the virtual hearing, which formally started at 9:03 am PT today with the brothers\u2019 lawyer Rummel (who was with Erik Menendez for Thursday\u2019s hearing), L.A. County Deputy DA Ethan Millius, officials from the state\u2019s CDCR, and family members also attending remotely, Commissioner Garland praised the allegedly rehabilitation seeking Menendez for his \u201cclearly heartfelt, well-written, informative\u201d submissions to the Board. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, Garland also dug deep on the relationship Lyle had with his father, the alleged abuse he suffered and then his brother becoming the target of the abuse when Lyle was in his early teens, as well as Lyle\u2019s own often undiscussed abuse of Erik. The commissioner also returned again and again to the credibility and truthfulness of the older Menendez sibling \u2013 especially in the years after the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez.<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking over the risk assessment report on Menendez being at a \u201cmoderate risk\u201d of violence if let out on parole, Garland at one point late Friday, bluntly said that she thought the actual record of his various prison violations like having an illegal phone, were much more \u201cdeceitful\u201d and intentional than he was letting on in the hearing. <\/p>\n

\n\tEven though Menendez himself called a March 2024 violation a wake-up call (no pun intended, I think) about his conduct, Garland noted he soon afterwards did it again and presently cut off from family visits for the next three years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEven though you fooled your entire family about you being the murderer, and you recruited all these people to help you \u2026 you don\u2019t think that\u2019s being a good liar?\u201d Garland asked Menendez earlier in the day, who repeated his answer in the negative. Citing the various explanations he and his brother initially provided after their parents\u2019 death, the $100,000 and more spending sprees they went on, efforts to destroy an unfriendly will and scripting responses for witnesses, and even \u201cescape plans from jail,\u201d the commissioner pointed what she termed Menendez\u2019s \u201csophistication of the web of lies and manipulation you demonstrated afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf that sentiment from Commissioner Garland played a factor in today\u2019s denial of Lyle Menendez\u2019s parole, the top priority \u201cpost-conviction factors\u201d spotlighted by Deputy Parole Commissioner Patrick Reardon in her questioning disclosed a spotty prison record at best from the older sibling. As made evident by Commissioner Robert Barton in his denial Thursday of Erik Menendez\u2019s parole for at three more years, the incarcerated\u2019s actions in the joint spoke much louder than their words or promises \u2014 especially when it comes to public safety.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tAmidst the infractions, for Lyle Menendez, like Erik Menendez, it was illegal cell phones in prison that proved the sticky wicket to his getting out. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had convinced myself that this wasn\u2019t a means that was harming anyone but myself in a rule violation,\u201d Menendez replied as Reardon asked again and again how he could square the repeated incident being caught with a phone he wasn\u2019t supposed to have with being a good prisoner.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would never call myself a model incarcerated person,\u201d Menendez exclaimed under questioning. \u201cI would say that I\u2019m a good person, that I spent my time helping people, that I\u2019m very open and accepting.\u201d Harking to previous mention of his Menendez added: \u201cI\u2019m the guy that officers will come to to resolve conflicts \u2026At the time I didn\u2019t feel that using the phone was inconsistent with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThat didn\u2019t appear to go over well with Dep. Commissioner Reardon, who followed up with wanting to know why Menendez even needed a hidden cell phone to communicate with his relatives if he already had access to a tablet for pretty much the same purpose. That line of questioning set off a skirmish between the CDCR official and Menendez attorney Rummel about taking things offline so to speak and to discuss the matter confidentiality. <\/p>\n

\n\tAt that junction, the hearing took a recess. <\/p>\n

\n\tUpon reconvening, and Commissioner Garland determining the already pretty locked away hearing would not go (further) behind closed doors, the matter of Menendez and cell phones, of which he had several violations over the years, came up again. \u201cI felt like the phone was a way to protect \u2026privacy,\u201d Menendez admitted, saying that because his correspondence on his tablet was monitored by prison staff he believed portions of what should have been private conversations were being sold to media outlets. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Menendez lawyer Rummel and Dep. DA Millius spoke, Menendez cousin and very public advocate Anamaira Baralt addressed the board, like she did Thursday for Erik Menendez. \u201cLyle has not been a violent person in his entire life,\u201d Baralt said. \u201cHe is not a violent person today. In 54 years, I have not heard Lyle raise his voice, not once.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a case that up until just a few weeks ago many assumed was a slam dunk on the Menendezs\u2019 release, Baralt\u2019s words, along with those of other family members, proved no more convincing today than they had yesterday. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Erik<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Erik Menendez & his brother Lyle during a pre-trial hearing on December 29, 1992<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tIncreasingly forgotten in the decades after their media circus trials of the early cable age, the brothers would have likely had no chance of even thinking about getting out if not for the much watched success of Netflix<\/a> and Ryan Murphy<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story<\/a>\u00a0series and some Peacock documentaries claiming new evidence. The Emmy nominated Monsters was seen as a potential political lifeline to incumbent and sometimes media savvy LA County DA \u00a0George Gasc\u00f3n<\/a> as he suddenly took an interest in the case and recommended resentencing for the brothers. <\/p>\n

\n\tEven though current LA DA Nathan Hochman<\/a> won the race in a landslide last November, the resentencing process as well as an ongoing May 2023 filed habeas petition the brothers have before the courts seeking a new trial were still active.<\/p>\n

\n\tHochman came out against both the resentencing and a new trial \u2013 as he restated earlier this week.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, the DA seemed irrelevant on May 13 when LA Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic resentenced Erik and Lyle Menendez to 50 years to life<\/a> \u2014 thereby making them instantly eligible to seek parole. Leading us to yesterday and today, after a delay to allow the brothers to adequately prepare, the parole attempt took the slots offered by a clemency process already ordered by California Governor Gavin Newsom<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn an alternative universe, where one or both of the brothers had been granted parole, they would have had to stay behind bars as the Board of Paroles chief counsel gave the recommendation a final legal and administrative overhaul When that is done, which could take weeks, then the grant would be sent to Gov. Newsom for final approval \u2013 which the ambitious Democrat could give, reject, or seek more clarification on. <\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the laws of the Golden State, Newsom could still step in and even grant clemency to the Menendez brothers. Yet, with the relative mild (by California standards) prohibition on future parole bids by the siblings out of this week\u2019s hearings, it is likely a dilemma the governor has no interest in dealing with now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after his younger brother was denied parole at the conclusion of a grueling 10-hour hearing, Lyle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,25398,2013,68938,68939,26265,217,3,11494,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-103450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-erik-menendez","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-lyle-menendez","tag-monsters-the-lyle-and-erik-menendez-story","tag-nathan-hochman","tag-netflix","tag-news","tag-ryan-murphy","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}