Video Clip From the 1st trial - Erik testifies how he reacted after Lyle told him about the Jose confrontation on Thursday. Clip from Lyle as well.
Erik Menendez testifies in the 1st trial
Q: Take us up to that night in 1989 and what you believed your - your existence was about during that weekend. Where were emotionally, where were youin terms of your relationship with your parents and your brother at that time?
Lyle Menendez: I certainly did not know that my - my father was still in a sexual relationship with my brother. When he told me that weekend, I think in part because he was concerned that I was about to go back to school and you know continue my life and sort of leave him behind, my brother was suicidal, was emotional, and revealed this, uh, horrific, uh, you know, uh history of what had been going on with his father - you know
I had the reaction that I still, today you know how complicit was he in it? I mean he’s - he’s an 18-year-old kid obviously this isn’t something where you’re being forced, it’s but I don’t know that’s just complicated whether it - you know how emotionally uh, beaten down he was at that point but they were obviously in a sexual relationship that he wanted to stop.
I certainly did not kill my father because he was doing that.
My intention was to take my brother back to Princeton find some way out of this figure out what we should do. My brother thinks it’s you know the fatal error in all of this that I told, I decided to tell my father, uh threatened him basically and said that this is going to stop and I’m going to take my brother out of this. I expected his reaction to be okay you know I’m done with it, go ahead. uh, and, he did not that reaction. His reaction was you should go - go back to Princeton deal with your life, you’ve got your things set up and let - and let Erik be he’s going to stay here in California.
I felt like my brother had given up. Uh, there was, he, this is - it started when he was an early teenager or younger and he had just sort of given up and ended up in this sort of sick sexual relationship with my father uh and, I didn’t really know what honestly I didn’t really know what to think other than just uh, horrified by it and just shocked that I did not know. Um, and I think my shock really grew when I,(realized) had a conversation with my mother about it and it was clear that she knew.
For me, it was just trying to end it and then being threatened uh, that my father was never gonna let that happen - more, more concerned that I was going to reveal what had happened with my father because you have to understand my father was a very successful media executive, very high profile media executive. There was no way he was going to go through a child molestation trial. And I was feeling a tremendous amount of outrage. I mean the fact that my mother knew - I just - I don’t know, I can’t even really explain the downward spiral I was in that week.
I mean my whole life that I was a puppy goat started again at Princeton and that you know uh, I was the last thing I was even thinking about. I was just really in this sort of consumed place of uh, so many emotions you know, I can say anger and hatred and outrage and fear and those things because it’s hard to separate them. I just was overwhelmed, I didn’t know what was going to happen we were just - I felt like it was a very uh, you know, grave situation.
Lyle DIDN'T BLAME ERIK
From Lyle's Parole Hearing: Uh, I definitely felt it strongly for a minute, for a little while when I found out about my brother, uh, being abused by my father, there was a feeling of, I don't know, I didn't blame Erik, but it was like, I thought that was just me. And so I -- Iwas really stunned, I think that's why it took me a while to do something about it.
JOSEPH MENENDEZ: Uh, I've always thought about it more, you know, today, and in -- in looking back and understanding my father, uh, at the time honestly, I buried emotion right away. So the momentary, you know, I feel wow, that, you know, I can't believe it’s happening to Erik, like that’s not, I thought it was just me, but I don't, I didn't spend a lot of time on just kind of don't blame Erik. I try to never blame Erik. Uh, and, uh, because how, you know, looking back, how can you blame Erik, obviously.
Posted Oct 10, 2025, 7:18 PM UTC