Rob Rand Wants Justice for the Menendez Brothers

Emmy and duPont Award winning investigative journalist, author 'The Menendez Murders,' Executive Producer 'Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed' on @peacock, @penn

[Rob Rand Wants Justice for the Menendez Brothers @MenendezRand]

@60Mins: "I believe they will eventually be let out," said Robert Rand, a journalist who has covered the Menendez case for 35 years. "Lyle and Erik Menendez should be sent home to their family. This case needs to end."
https://t.co/RBDR6gkx6w

[Rob Rand Wants Justice for the Menendez Brothers @MenendezRand]

Thirty years ago this week...
"The Menendez Brothers' sentencing"
Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to llfe without parole after a jury voted to spare their lives after a three week penalty phase in their second trial for killing their parents in Beverly Hills on August 20, 1989 - almost 37 years ago.

From the Updated Edition of "The Menendez Murders:"
Chapter 59 -"LWOP and a Wedding"
At four minutes past ten, Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, as the jury had recommended. “It is quite clear the defendants considered killing each parent separately,” said trial Judge Stanley Weisberg. “This was a decision made over several days. They considered killing one parent, or both, and decided on both and followed that decision.” Weisberg called each murder a “separate act of violence.”
Because of that, he said, the prison terms would be consecutive. He added on twenty-five years to life for the conspiracy conviction.
Both brothers received credit for the 2,306 days they’d already been in jail. Neither displayed any reaction.

The consecutive sentences meant there
would be little chance Erik and Lyle Menendez would ever step foot outside of prison.
In a firm, clear voice, each brother said they understood their right to appeal. At 10:13 am, they were remanded to custody of the state Department of Corrections. Barry Levin touched Erik’s arm gently. Lyle huddled briefly with his attorneys Charles Gessler and Terri Towery. As he stood to
return to the lock-up, Lyle smiled and waved at Anna Eriksson, whose eyes were filled with tears.

Terry Baralt, wearing a bright cranberry blazer, sobbed heavily as she left the courtroom. BHPD detective Les Zoeller approached her with words of comfort.
Nearby, four jurors from the second trial made small talk. “I don’t really feel badly for them,” said juror Andrew Wolfberg. “I’m confident we did the right thing, and I can live with it.”

Outside the courthouse, David Conn and Carol Najera approached an eager throng of media. Conn called the sentence “appropriate,” since the brothers had committed a “heinous” offense. Was the outcome a personal victory? “It’s very gratifying to see to it that justice was done in this case,” said Conn. “Judge Weisberg did his job by keeping out trivial accusations.”
“Child abuse is trivial?” asked a reporter.
“Child abuse was not kept out. They were permitted to present all the allegations concerning their parents,” said Conn. “

(Thank you Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic for the resentencing on May 13, 2025 from LWOP to 50 years to life making them immediately eligible for parole.)

Here was my analysis for KCOP TV in L.A. at the end of the retrial on March 21, 1996.

https://t.co/24fCoAn8Ns

[Variety @Variety]

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have donated $26M to more than 20 charities this week ahead of their reported New York wedding. The recipients include:

• City Harvest (New York City)

• Food Bank for NYC

• New York Cares

• Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

• Harvesters – The Community Food Network (Kansas City, MO)

• The Store (Nashville, TN)

• Helping Harvest (Reading, PA)

• Rhode Island Community Food Bank

• Feeding America (National)

• ASPCA (National)

• Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (National)

• Grammy in the Schools (National)

• Education Through Music (New York, NY)

• Answer the Call (New York, NY)

• Musical Mentors (New York, NY)

• After-School All-Stars (New York, NY)

• After-School All-Stars (Cleveland, OH)

• MSK Kids, the pediatric cancer program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (Children & Teen and Adolescents & Young Adult programs)

• Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone

• Children’s Mercy Hospital (Kansas City, MO)

https://t.co/pB1Vz5ZtiN

[People @people]

Margaret Cho Recalls Urinating Blood After Losing 30 Pounds in 3 Weeks, but Being Warned Not to Gain the Weight Back https://t.co/K5QXOXScxd

[The New Yorker @NewYorker]

In a nation of plummeting pride and MAGA hats, “patriotism just isn’t cool anymore,” Arthur Krystal writes. https://t.co/muJ8TaXf1h

[Nan @NanjimN]

#JusticeForErikAndLyle
#FreeTheMenendezBrothers

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

“Guys, the new 1981 Citation is here. I know you’ve been hard at work with our ad team. What’s the nicest thing we can say about this piece of shit?”

[Keegan Hamilton @keegan_hamilton]

Yet another letter attributed to El Chapo posted today on his case docket in the Eastern District of New York.

El Chapo's lawyers say he is not responsible for sending these — the identity of the sender is unknown, although there have been some clues…

https://t.co/fzqmlxLFRD

[Americana at Brand Memes @americanamemes]

Fake people in LA: CityWalk is a tourist trap.

Real LA heads: CityWalk is LA’s true town square.

[Martin Turnbull, author @TurnbullMartin]

I missed the heyday of LA’s drug stores but I was surprised to see an Owl-Rexall Drugs with such an elaborate liquor store. Whatever you were after, it looks like they stocked it. This specific Rexall was on the southeast corner of Beverly & La Cienega Blvds.

[Daniel Swain @Weather_West]

Cooler-and-windier-than-average conditions will persist in the Western U.S. for a few more days as persistent and unusual summer troughing continues. Meanwhile, in the Eastern U.S., a genuinely extreme, and possibly historic, heatwave will build under an intense ridge. [Thread]

[Melodies & Masterpieces @SVG__Collection]

“The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five was released as a single 44 years ago today.

[Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric]

Farewell to Burrito King No. 1, the favorite late night stop of Echo Park rock 'n rollers and all day regulars since 1968. Seeing the vacant stall, right after the cleared Taix lot, was non bueno.

[Rob Rand Wants Justice for the Menendez Brothers @MenendezRand]

Happy 100th birthday to Mel Brooks. I’m not sure I want to be around that long
Via Steve Lopez
* Increasingly, I find myself getting bugged by a lot of things.
* I wish everyone would stop using the word ‘perfect.’
LA Times - I’d like to congratulate Mel Brooks on making it to the age of 100, but I’m not sure I want to duplicate his achievement.

I try not to focus on aging, not that there’s anything wrong with getting older. But sometimes I feel exhausted by the daily trials of modern living, and I’m not sure I can manage 27 more years of it.

I’m writing this having just gotten off the phone with a tech assistant who was trying to help me get into my expense reporting system, and things did not go well. You need to get a code from your authenticator to access what might be the most poorly conceived expense reporting system ever created, but after 48 minutes of trying, the tech couldn’t figure out the glitch.

He said he would get back to me, but he’s very busy, and “it might be tomorrow morning.”

Fingers crossed.

Generally speaking, I’m not a grouchy old man stuck in the past. I don’t think I am, anyway. I’m out in the world, even if I’ve retired from standing in line for a cup of coffee, and I can download a photograph onto my wristwatch.

But increasingly, I find myself getting bugged by a lot of things, no matter how trivial they are in the grand scheme. On some days, I’d like the option of putting a quarter in a meter rather than having to download a sixth parking app. And I wish everyone would stop using the word “perfect.”

I’ll check in at a restaurant, for instance, and a receptionist will ask my name. I respond, and the receptionist says, “Perfect.”

Really?

What time was the reservation for, the receptionist might ask.

6:30.

“Perfect.”

Imagine my luck. I showed up with the right name at precisely the right time. Do I get a free cocktail?

The word “perfect” is inappropriately uttered roughly as often as the phrase “no problem.” I don’t recall a ballot measure in which we voted to replace “you’re welcome” with “no problem,” but it’s happening, folks, and here’s how it works:

Me: Happy birthday, Mel.

Mel: Thank you.

Me: No problem.

There is often no eye contact during these casual exchanges. I think roughly half the population is unaware that other people exist, and I’m hoping all of them are replaced by AI.

I have a 3-year-old beagle, and every once in a while he scoots around on his butt. This is not a trick we taught him. It’s a sign of discomfort that requires medical attention.

I took him to get some help and checked him in at the front desk.

What’s his name, asked the receptionist.

Philly.

“Perfect.”

We kind of like it. Frankly, I had wanted to name him Willie, but I was outvoted.

And what is Philly here for today?

He’s having his anal glands expressed.

“Perfect,” says the receptionist, who could also have used “no problem.”

Either way, Philly doesn’t think so. He doesn’t speak, but I can read his eyes.

For several weeks, I had an itchy bump on the back of my scalp. My wife saw me scratching it and asked what was going on, so I gave her the lowdown

“You’re an idiot,” she said, explaining that an intelligent person would go see a dermatologist.

But you know how that goes. You fill out 12 or 18 forms online, giving them your life history, then get to your appointment and they ask if your address and insurance have changed in the 10 minutes since you sent them the forms. Then you fill out all the forms again.

The biopsy revealed an issue. When I went back, the receptionist asked what I was there for.

“Squamous cell carcinoma surgery,” I said.

“Perfect,” said the receptionist.

Hmmmmmm. Sure, all things considered, I’d rather have a small bump sliced off my scalp than have my anal glands expressed. But still, the word “perfect” doesn’t pop into my head.

Lately, our TV has been on the fritz, and there’s nothing perfect about that. The problem began when we unbundled, canceling our landline, which was like pulling the last thread that kept our lives from unraveling.

All of a sudden you’re sorting through a snake’s nest of dusty cables and cords, trying to tell a receiver from a hard drive. Maybe you can fix the whole mess by pressing the right buttons on your remote, but with four to choose from, that’s a game of roulette you’re sure to lose.

And it’s anyone’s guess as to whether you should call the phone company or the cable company. This is why you should keep the name of a real estate agent handy, so you can just sell the house and let someone else figure out the TV problem.

If you’re like me, you find yourself digging for passwords you can’t remember to accounts you don’t know the name of. It used to be said that infidelity and money woes were the main causes of broken marriages. I’d bet cash that the new top reasons for divorce are forgotten passwords and not showing enough sympathy when your spouse is on hold for 83 minutes and counting.

My wife does the bulk of the troubleshooting on these problems, bless her. I think I’ll make a dinner reservation.

But I did make one call to the cable company after my TV screen flashed a phone number and an extension, so I could fix my stalled hard drive and restore my 53 episodes of “The Rockford Files.”

I dialed, and the extension didn’t work. Nobody there.

I think the number on my screen was actually an error code rather than an extension, but we would need a congressional investigation. After my knees were nearly buckled by a series of shooting pains behind my eyeballs, I dialed again and got a friendly voice that said:

“I’m Eva, your AI agent. How can I help you today?”

This is not sustainable, in my opinion. Somewhere, a driverless car is going to run into a data center, and the world is going to explode.

Yes, of course there have been thousands of technological advances in my lifetime, and my smart phone is full of helpful apps. But a lot of simple tasks have gotten more complicated, and from where I sit, people are more wired but less connected, and definitely more frazzled.

Happy birthday, Mel Brooks.

I don’t know how much longer I’ve got, but I’m thinking of going off the grid.

It’s going to be perfect.
https://t.co/nFQFOqu9Jv

[The Atlantic @TheAtlantic]

NPR’s erroneous report that Justice Samuel Alito had retired “is, by journalistic standards, a massive blunder,” Charlie Warzel argues: “A valid question though is how many people still care about those standards.” https://t.co/vePIoDAM5D

[Netflix @netflix]

Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen will star as Patsy and John Ramsey in THE MURDER OF JONBENÉT RAMSEY.

The new limited series is coming to Netflix this winter from showrunner Richard LaGravenese (Behind the Candelabra).

[BNO News @BNONews]

BREAKING: Victor Willis, founding member of the Village People and lead singer of Y.M.C.A., has died at 74

[New York Post @nypost]

Sen. Mitch McConnell was found “unconscious” and may have suffered a heart attack at his DC residence before being rushed to a local hospital last month, according to a District Fire and EMS dispatch call made public Wednesday. https://t.co/bMj78ONuTp

[Reuters @Reuters]

Rescuers in Venezuela continue searching for survivors a week after twin earthquakes, as tens of thousands remain missing and the death toll exceeds 1,940 https://t.co/VRLXnTeacp

[California Post @californiapost]

A SWAT team with guns drawn swarmed a seedy motel on LA's infamous Figueroa Corridor before dawn Wednesday to arrest an accused brothel kingpin tied to a vile prostitution ring that victimized girls as young as 14. https://t.co/EW2JnyLv6F