Why the Menendez brothers’ prosecutor is facing backlash 31 years after the trial
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The Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” has sparked new interest in the two brothers, who were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents and are today serving out life sentences in prison.
The secondary players in their case are now also drawing attention, like Erik Menendez’s defense attorney Leslie Abramson and the first trial’s prosecutor, Pamela Bozanich.
The former Los Angeles prosecutor, who represented the state of California in the first trial of the Menendez brothers, has openly shared her opinions of their guilt, and reiterates them in the accompanying Netflix documentary “The Menendez Brothers.”
Some of Bozanich’s comments in the new documentary are making headlines of their own, too.
Here’s what to know about Bozanich.
Who is Pamela Bozanich?
According to Robert Rand’s book “The Menendez Murders,” which informed the Netflix series, Bozanich was a 10-year veteran of the L.A. District Attorney’s office when she was appointed to the case.
She took over the case from original lead prosecutor, Elliott Alhadeff, Rand wrote in his book. “A press release said he’d been replaced because of a ‘personality conflict’” with the district attorney, Rand’s book reads.
Bozanich argued at the trial that the brothers fabricated their defense of being sexually abused by their father, Jose Menendez.
“This is a very straightforward case. These two people were sitting here watching television and they got slaughtered by their sons,” she argued at the trial.
Bozanich personally believes allegations of sexual abuse were unfounded.
“That whole defense was fabricated. And it was done artfully, but it was fabricated. And if I were an immoral person, I would have fabricated much in the same way,” she says during an interview in the documentary “The Menendez Brothers.”
The trial with Bozanich at the helm resulted in two hung juries, one for Lyle Menendez and one for Erik Menendez. The brothers went on trial a second time before a single jury, and were convicted in 1996.
“I didn’t win and that was hard,” she says in the documentary of the first trial.
She did not participate in the prosecution at Lyle and Erik Menendez’s second trial.
What does she say in the new documentary?
In “The Menendez Brothers,” Bozanich gives her frank first impression of the brothers.
“I had no reaction to the Menendez brothers. No visceral reaction. I didn’t feel like I was in the presence of pure evil. They were like potted plants to me. They were like poisonous potted plants. There was nothing about them I found fascinating. They were just these dumb jock killers,” she says.
Of Abramson, she says, “If I told you what I really thought of Leslie Abramson, I would be sued.”
She remarked on the “awful” things people said about Jose Menendez. “The loss of Jose Menendez, in my mind, was an actual plus for mankind. Jose Menendez was a real awful man. He raised two sons capable of murder, so there you go,” she says.
But it’s Bozanich’s other statements that have drawn the ire of TikTok, where users have reconsidered the brothers’ case and called for their release.
“The only reason we’re doing this special (documentary) is because of the TikTok movement to free the Menendi,” she says. “If that’s how we’re going to try cases now, why don’t we just, like, have a poll?”
She also sends a message to those sympathetic to Erik and Lyle Menendez.
“Your beliefs are not facts,” she says. “They’re just beliefs. And by the way, all you TikTok people, I’m armed. We’ve got guns all over the house, so don’t mess with me.”
TODAY.com has reached out to Bozanich for comment.
Where is Pamela Bozanich now?
In the years since the case ended, Bozanich has appeared on TV discussing the Menendez trial.
Bozanich has retired and her license with California’s state bar has been inactive since 2005.
