Brothers Were Not Planning an Escape : Menendez case: Sheriff’s official says there is no evidence that the murder suspects were seeking to flee jail.

There is no evidence that either Lyle or Erik Menendez, accused of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion, was planning an escape from the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, a Sheriff’s Department official told The Times on Thursday.

Lt. William Sieber, head of the sheriff’s fugitive warrant escape detail, said investigators “are unable to validate with any accuracy or certainty that either of these two gentlemen played a part in the tampering with the chains which were used to secure them.”

After a daylong hearing in Santa Monica Superior Court last Friday, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman told the news media that two links in a chain binding Lyle Menendez’s ankles had been filed almost through.

In addition, authorities recovered notes from the brothers’ cells possibly indicating an escape attempt, the spokesman said.

Both the chains and the notes were sent to the sheriff’s crime lab for analysis.

“In our professional opinion, the chains were not cut by either of the Menendez brothers,” Sieber said Thursday.

He also said that the notes and diagrams recovered from the brothers’ cells were of a building that could not be identified, adding that he could not conclude that the notes had anything to do with an escape attempt.

A sheriff’s source who requested anonymity said Thursday that the department should have conducted “a more thorough investigation” before releasing details of the alleged escape attempt to the news media.

Lyle Menedez, 22, and his brother Erik, 19, are charged with the Aug. 20 murders of their parents, entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty.

The brothers, arrested in March, are being held in County Jail while awaiting a preliminary hearing in the highly publicized case.

They had been held in a high-security area of the jail near each other, but they were moved farther apart Friday night so they could not communicate while the investigation into the alleged escape attempt continued.

Neither brother would answer deputies’ questions about a possible escape attempt when they were returned to their cells Friday night, officials said.

Sieber said the question of how the two links in Lyle Menendez’s chain had been cut remained unanswered, and that the matter was still under investigation.

Approximately six notes, handwritten in pencil on yellow legal-size tablets, were foiund in the brothers’ cells, Sieber said. He said the notes referred to “moving from the U.S. to Europe.”

But investigators could not conclude that the notes had anything to do with an imminent escape attempt, the lieutenant added.

One of the pieces of paper confiscated by a deputy had a drawing on it, according to a member of the Menendez family.

Sieber confirmed this and said the drawing, complete with notations of stairwells, was of a building that could not be identified.

A relative speculated that Lyle Menendez had been designing a new restaurant that he wanted to purchase. He had bought a restaurant last February in downtown Princeton, N.J., where he had lived and attended college. He had been considering developing a chain of franchises.

Sieber said both the district attorney’s office and the court would be notified of the sheriff’s findings. He added that no new charges would be sought against the brothers.