1. Erik Menendez told L. Jerome Oziel about killing his parents. Erik and his brother, Lyle Menendez, shot and killed their parents, Jose and Kitty, on Aug. 20, 1989. Erik and Lyle were 18 and 20 years old at the time of the murders. In Oct. 1989, Erik went to meet with Jerome, his psychologist at the time. Erik confessed to Jerome that he and Lyle had killed their parents. Lyle found out what Erik had done and threatened to kill Jerome if he told the police, according to The Rolling Stone. This was just one major turn of events that led to Erik and Lyle’s arrest for the murders in 1990.
2. Jerome’s mistress became a key part of the trial as well. Judalon Smyth, whom Jerome was having an extramarital affair with at the time of Erik’s confession, initially told police that she had listened in on the Menendez brothers saying they had shot their mother’s eye of socket, according to the Los Angeles Times. She testified during the trial that she had NOT heard them say that, nor had she heard “from their own mouths” that the brothers had killed their parents. Judalon claimed she had been brainwashed by Jerome during their time together, so she couldn’t be responsible for contradictions or inconsistencies in her testimony.
3. L. Jerome Oziel testified in the trial for the prosecution. Usually, Jerome would not have been able to testify because of doctor-patient privilege, but he claimed that the brothers had threatened his life. During the trial, Jerome said Erik and Lyle told him: “We just get turned on with planning the murder. Once we start, nothing gets in the way.”
4. L. Jerome Oziel lost his psychology license after the trial. Jerome was stripped of his psychology license in 1997. He had been accused of breaking confidentiality rules and having sex with female patients, the Los Angeles Times reported.
5. Leslie Abramson, Erik Menendez’s lead defense lawyer, tried to make Jerome look like a bad witness. She vowed to discredit Jerome “in every way known to man and God.” She claimed that Jerome had an “exploitative, manipulative, sexualized” relationship with patients and other women in his life, according to the LA Times.
Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Brothers airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
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