1. Judalon Smyth is responsible for getting the Menendez brothers arrested. Judalon initially claimed that she was listening on the other side of L. Jerome Oziel’s office door when Erik and Lyle Menendez discussed killing their parents. Judalon eventually went to the police and said that she had overheard the brothers confessing and heard them threaten Jerome’s life. This led to Erik and Lyle being arrested in March 1990, nearly a year after killing their parents.
2. Judalon had an affair with L. Jerome Oziel, Erik and Lyle Menendez’s therapist. Judalon and Jerome were in a romantic relationship, even though Jerome was married. Judalon even moved in with Jerome and his wife, Laurel, for a few months in the midst of their affair, according to the Los Angeles Times. Laurel claimed that Jerome was honest with her about his affair with Judalon and said that they were being “held hostage by this woman in our own home.” Talk about a twisted love triangle.
3. Judalon testified on behalf of the defense. She said on the stand that Jerome had persuaded the Menendez brothers to tape a session because “he needed to get them to say incriminating things on a tape so we would have the tape to protect us.” She also testified that he told Erik and Lyle that a tape would show a jury that they were remorseful over killing their parents. Even though she was the one to go to the police and say she had heard the brothers confess, she later testified that she didn’t overhear Erik and Lyle confess to the killings and threaten to kill Jerome after all. She claimed that Jerome brainwashed her into thinking she overheard those things.
4. Judalon later spoke out against Jerome. Judalon filed two lawsuits against her former lover, claimed that he allegedly assaulted, raped, and forced her to take prescription drugs, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1993. She then testified that she believed Jerome was planning to kill her, and she had gone into hiding to protect herself.
5. Judalon broke her silence after 25 years in 2015. She refused to give interviews until she talked about the scrutiny of her testimony in the true-crime docuseries Murder Made Me Famous. “It was a little confusing for me the way the media was,” she said. “I really didn’t understand the attack I was going to come under for doing the right thing.”
Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
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