CommentsCORRUPTION WATCH-The hypocrisy about sexual predators must stop -- at least in Los Angeles where it all began anew with Harvey Weinstein. For decades the Los Angeles District Attorney Office has viciously attacked the most famous victims of child rape -- Lyle and Erik Menendez. Even with the current documentaries and TV dramas, the viciously corrupt DA’s Office denies that Lyle and Erik were raped.
Back in 1996, knowing that Erik and Lyle Menendez would not be found guilty of first degree murder if the jury heard all the evidence of abuse, the DA’s Office got the morally compromised Judge Stanley Weisberg to refuse to give the jury the Imperfect Self-Defense Instruction. After a hung jury in the first case in 1993, DA Gil Garcetti feared that if the new jury heard the Imperfect Self-Defense argument, it was likely to find them guilty only of manslaughter and not first-degree murder -- a conviction he so passionately desired. Weisberg barred corroborating evidence about Jose Menendez' years of sexual brutalization of his sons and refused to allow the Imperfect Self-Defense, i.e. the idea that Lyle and Erik feared their lives were in danger.
Weisberg's decision to railroad the brothers helped bolster the DA’s sagging career. Garcetti’s incompetence had resulted in the acquittal of O.J. the year before on October 3, 1995. So, if the two victims of years of child rape had to pay the price to put a win in DA Garcetti’s column, then "f%*k 'em."
The time has long since passed for the Democrat District Attorney to admit that when it is politically expedient to vilify victims of child rape, the DA’s office will not hesitate to do so. DA Jackie Lacey has been in the Los Angeles DA's Office since 1986. She had to know that the Menendez Brothers were railroaded by a corrupt system, but she has proven complicit in the “epidemic of [prosecutorial] misconduct.”
It is not too late to admit the truth about the improper conduct which resulted in Weisberg’s corrupt manipulation of the jury.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office Has an Extensive History of Predatory Abuse
The experience of Thomas Lee Goldstein illustrates how the LA District Attorney Office frames and otherwise deprives people of fair trials. In 1979, after John McGist was shot by an unidentified assailant in Long Beach, the police arrested Thomas Goldstein. Here is the story per the California Supreme Court:
“In 1979 Goldstein was an engineering student and Marine Corps veteran with no criminal history. He became a murder suspect after an eyewitness to an unrelated shooting saw the gunman enter Goldstein’s apartment building. No witness or forensic evidence connected Goldstein with the murder victim, but Long Beach police detectives showed Goldstein's photograph, among others, to Loran Campbell, an eyewitness to the homicide. Campbell did not recognize anyone in the photo lineup, and Goldstein did not match Campbell’s description of the suspect. However, a detective asked if Goldstein could have been the person Campbell saw running from the scene. Campbell said it was possible, though he was not certain. Goldstein was arrested and placed in a jail cell with Edward Floyd Fink, a heroin addict and convicted felon.”
As later events showed, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office knew that Fink was a liar who often provided false testimony in return for favorable treatment by the DA’s office.
As the Grand Jury has documented, between 1979 and 1990, the LA County DA’s office had a practice of using lying jailhouse informants. The current problem with dishonest prosecutors is still so great that in January 2015, the federal courts found that the state courts still were experiencing an “epidemic of misconduct” including the use of lying jail house informants and prosecutors who take the stand and commit perjury. In response, the California State Bar is formulating new restraints for District Attorneys. (Rule 5-110 Special Responsibilities of a Prosecutor, effective Nov. 2, 2017.) Thomas Goldstein, who was shown to be innocent, would still be in prison except a federal court ordered his release in 2004.
A Corrupt Judicial System Makes Wealthy Predators Secure in their Abuse
The determinative factor in a criminal prosecution is not supposed to be the care and feeding of the District Attorney’s political career. When Harvey Weinstein told his victims that no one would believe them, he was referring to the District Attorney. Widespread sexual abuse exists because of widespread complicit behavior by prosecutors. Harvey Weinstein’s political contributions total about $2,317,000. Two million dollars buys a lot of blind eyes.
And, where were Erik and Lyle Menendez to go to stop their father from raping and beating them? To the predatory Los Angeles District Attorney who used lying jailhouse informants to convict the innocent and turn a blind eye to wealthy predators? Like Harvey Weinstein, Jose Menendez convinced his victims that he held all the power cards. And Jose was correct. Complain to the authorities about abuse and the authorities will deliver you into the hands of your murderers. Ask Gabriel Fernandez or Nicole Simpson.
What about O.J.’s on-going physical abuse Nicole? As long as he dispensed “favors” in Hollywood, they loved him. When their careers were on the line, however, the DA’s Office couldn’t break enough laws trying to convict O.J., resulting in such a judicial mess that the jury had to acquit him. That acquittal became a massive political problem for DA Garcetti and set the stage for the vicious abuse of the Menendez brothers as he attempted to salvage his career.
A 1990 article in the LA Times painted this portrait of Jose Menendez:
“Jose Menendez was a larger-than-life character who possessed great charm and intense drive. He was in command of every situation, arrived first at every conclusion and out-hustled every competitor. He also exercised great power over his household and hammered into his sons the ethic of success and achievement. When the boys were 12 and 9, the elder Menendez started them on a demanding regimen calculated to make them into tennis stars.”
So, where were young Erik and Lyle supposed to turn to for help?
The pro-Garcetti media widely used the fact that Erik and Lyle had some prior legal troubles to prove that they were bad seeds – wealthy, privileged and ungrateful. Erik had broken into a neighbor’s home and Lyle was suspended from Princeton for plagiarism. It was well known to the District Attorney’s psychological experts that such “acting out” by scions of wealth families is often caused by a sexual abuse.
Speaking of Garcetti, a writer for the Washington Post reported, “As he fights for his political survival, Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti sometimes feels haunted by a vision of his epitaph after a lifetime devoted to public safety: ‘The Man Who Lost the O.J. Simpson Murder Case.’ ‘My God, am I going to be defined by this case forever?’ an exasperated Garcetti asked in an interview, as he reflected on his rejection by nearly two-thirds of the voters in last month's primary race against five challengers.”
To fix his image, DA Garcetti enlisted the help of Judge Stanley Weisberg to re-victimize the Menendez brothers.
The DA’s Office under Garcetti was not searching for the truth; rather, it was devoted to the care and feeding of Gil Garcetti’s political career. The second trial in 1996 was cleansed of the corroborative evidence offered by family members of the years of physical, psychological and sexual abuse by Jose Menendez. It is not too hard to convict two boys of first degree murder when the judge refuses to allow them to put on their evidence.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
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