The Menendez Brothers documentary on Netflix is yet another Netflix project about Lyle and Erik Menendez, aka the two brothers who killed their wealthy parents in their Beverly Hills home, back in 1989.
Over three decades laterâthanks in part to social media and the rise of true crime contentâthis high-profile criminal case has once again captured the interest of the public. Many people now believe that the brothersâwho were convicted of murder and are currently serving a life sentence without paroleâacted in self-defense against their abusive parents, and deserve to go free. But there’s at least one person involved in the Menendez brothers case who hasn’t been swayed by the social media campaigns: Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich, who is featured in this new documentary.
“The only reason we’re doing this special is because of the TikTok movement to ‘Free the Menendi,’” Bozanich says in a talking head interview for the documentary. “If that’s how we’re going to try cases now, why don’t just like, have a poll? You present the facts, everybody gets to vote on TikTok, and then we decide who gets to go home. Your beliefs are not facts. They’re just beliefs.”
Then Bozanich warns the TikTokers who defend Menendez to stay away from her, saying, “By the way, all you TikTok peopleâI’m armed. We’ve got guns all over the house. So don’t mess with me.”
Bozanich was a Deputy District Attorney back in 1993, when she was put on the prosecution for the first trial for the Menendez murder case. The trial was televised on Court TV, and became a national sensationâespecially after the brothers’ lawyer came forward with the bombshell defense argument that the brothers had been sexually abused and threatened by their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. Both brothers said their parents had molested them for over a decade, and threatened to kill them if they ever told anyone.
That argument, presented by defense lawyer Leslie Abramson and supported by over 50 witnesses, was enough to convince some of the jury that the brothers deserved to be sentenced for manslaughter, not murder. But when the jury could not reach a consensus, a mistrial was declared. The second trial came with many new restrictions, and ultimately convicted both brothers of murder. They were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
The Menendez Brothers documentaryâwhich was directed by Alejandro Hartmann, and features phone interviews with both Erik and Lyle Menendez from prisonâis not the first time Bozanich has spoken out about her trial experience. According to a 2016 article from People, she was on an episode of Murder Made Me Famous, in which she asserted she that she was “100 percent sure that [the brothers] fabricated their defense” that they were sexually abused by their father.
As part of the social media campaign to “free the Menendez brothers,” some internet sleuths resurfaced a video of Bozanich stating during the televised trial that “men could not be raped, because they lack the necessary equipment to be raped.”
Hereâs the video of Pam Bozanich, the prosecutor for the Menendez brothers trial, saying that men canât be raped
Bozanich once again states that she does not believe the brothers were sexually abused in The Menendez Brothers.
“I’m telling you now, that whole defense was fabricated. It was done artfully, but it was fabricated,” Bozanich said in the Netflix documentary. “If I were an immoral person, I would have fabricated it much the same way.”
The post Menendez Brothers Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich Warns TikTokers “Don’t Mess With Me” in Netflix Doc: “I’m Armed” appeared first on Decider.
