‘Monsters’ star Cooper Koch reacts to Netflix’s Menendez Doc

Cooper Koch tuned into the Netflix documentary about Erik and Lyle Menendez, The Menéndez brotherswhich was published after his scripted series Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. And while the actor who played Lyle Menendez in the Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan limited series complimented the document, he also questioned why the new evidence now being reviewed by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office didn’t were included in both… characteristic of the hour.

“I thought they did a great job, I thought they left out a couple of pieces of information that would have been great to have in there, which is the two new pieces of evidence that have come out, which is the letter that Erik wrote. his cousin Andy,” Koch said during a visit Tuesday to Watch What Happens live. “And then also, a member of Menudo (Roy Rosselló) said that he had also been sexually abused by José Menéndez.”

Menendez’s cousin, Andrés “Andy Cano,” testified in 1993 during Menendez’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury for Erik and Lyle, who were on trial for the 1989 Beverly Hills murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez. When Cano took the stand, he testified that Erik had told him he was being molested by Jose.

The letter mentioned by Koch, however, was not discovered until 2018, decades after the brothers were convicted in 1996 at their second trial. Trial reporter Robert Rand found the letter after Cano’s death, when Rand was invited to the house to sift through Cano’s belongings for his family. “And within 15 minutes, I found this letter, looked at it and said, ‘Oh my God, this could be very important to the case,'” Rand said recently. The Hollywood Reporter of the new evidence, which supports the brothers’ claims of self-defense about their father’s continued abuse.

The letter was written when Erik was 17 in December 1988, about eight months before the murders, and was never brought to the trials in the mid-1990s.

The other evidence mentioned by Koch concerns the new witness Rosselló, who came forward after the trials to allege that he was sexually abused as a teenager by José in the early 1980s. Rosselló was a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who had signed with RCA Records, where José was a top executive at the time.

Rosselló made the allegation in the April 2023 Peacock docuseries, Menéndez + Menudo: Boys betrayed. His claim, along with Cano’s letter, were included in the habeas corpus petition filed by Erik and Lyle’s attorneys the following month, in May 2023, which is now under review. LA District Attorney George Gascón has set a hearing for Nov. 29 to share his decision on whether the new evidence could lead to a conviction for the Menendez brothers, now in their 50s, who are currently serving life sentences without parole.

When talking to THR about The Menéndez brothers documentary, Campfire Studios producers Ross Dinerstein and Rebecca Evans explained why they didn’t include the new evidence in their feature, saying they were leaving that up to the lawyers currently fighting the habeas petition.

“It’s all come down to their lawyers more than anything, and how they’re dealing with the new evidence, how they’re dealing with the new habeas petition. That’s where I feel like the crux of the fight is really happening,” he said Evans THR. “Habeas was introduced in 2023, and for us, when we were making the documentary, we felt like we weren’t here to litigate a case. We’re not here to present evidence, or new evidence for that matter, alongside the lawyers.”

Adds Rosselló’s allegation: “I felt like, this is Erik and Lyle’s story. It’s not really a story about the other guy in the Menudo case. I think those are things that the audience will learn about in the litigation and the news, but we really wanted to focus on the brothers.”

Also during his appearance on Andy Cohen’s Bravo Late Night Show, Koch talked about meeting the Menendez brothers incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in person in a visit hosted by Kim Kardashian, who has defended the release of the brothers, to discuss prison reform earlier monsters released

When I was talking about this meeting with THRKoch talked about the moment he locked eyes with Erik, the brother he portrayed for monsters. “We walked into the (prison) gym and the first person I saw was Erik. And we locked eyes, and he smiled and I smiled, and we hugged. And it was very, very powerful and emotional. It was an amazing experience. And he, they were both so kind, and they’re so normal.”

Koch said Erik praised what he heard about his commendable performance in the fifth episode, “The Hurt Man,” where Koch detailed a lifetime of abuse in a 33-minute monologue and explained THR of their discussions about the series. He also said he hopes the brothers receive a sentence.

“They’ve done an amazing job at the prison,” he said. “Erik teaches meditation. He teaches speaking classes. They’re both amazing people. I think back then people didn’t believe that male sexual abuse was something you could believe and the easiest pill to swallow was that they killed their parents for money. But now, after all this time, I think people are more open to understanding that something like that happened.”

Menendez’s attorneys, Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, meanwhile, are holding a news conference ahead of Wednesday’s November hearing with nearly two dozen Menendez family members, as well as friend and advocate for Hollywood Rosie O’Donnell, in what lawyers described as lawyers. a “powerful display of unity”.