Networks Lose Bid for Tapes in Menendez Case
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht on Thursday denied requests by the ABC and NBC television networks for potentially key evidence in the murders of Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty.
Albracht tentatively rejected making public an audiotape of an emergency 911 telephone call made to police last Aug. 20, when the Menendez couple was found slain in their Beverly Hills mansion. He said he would reconsider his decision next Tuesday.
The judge also rebuffed attempts by the networks to gain video and audiotapes made during the seizure of evidence in a Beverly Hills psychologist’s office, and information dealing with the purchase of two shotguns that are believed by police to be the possible murder weapons.
Albracht has ordered the county coroner to make public autopsy reports on the slain couple. On Thursday, on a motion by the Los Angeles Daily Journal newspaper, he ordered the coroner to make public investigative and toxicological reports as well.
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