Credibility of Menendez Witnesses Attacked

Craig Cignarelli, who testified for the prosecution that Erik Menendez confessed to the shotgun slayings of his parents, has fed jurors a series of lies, a high school pal suggested Thursday at Erik and Lyle Menendez’s murder trial.

Intensifying a defense attack on the credibility of the prosecution’s main witnesses, Kevin Christopher (Casey) Whalen said Thursday that a basic detail of Cignarelli’s confession story is not correct.

Cignarelli testified that Erik Menendez confessed to him at the Menendez mansion in Beverly Hills on Sept. 1, 1989, about 10 days after the killings. But, Whalen testified, Cignarelli was not there that day--Whalen was.

Cignarelli, Whalen declared, is “not an honest young man.”

Lyle Menendez, 25, and Erik Menendez, 22, are charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their parents, Jose Menendez, 45, a wealthy entertainment executive, and Kitty Menendez, 47. The sons shot the parents in the den of the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Prosecutors contend that the brothers killed out of hatred and greed. The defense concedes the killings but claims that the brothers lashed out after years of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

Another prosecution witness, Beverly Hills psychologist L. Jerome Oziel, has testified that Erik and Lyle Menendez confessed to him on Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, 1989. On Wednesday, the defense called a former business associate who called Oziel “a professional liar.”

With Whalen, the defense took aim Thursday at Cignarelli.

Cignarelli had testified that after Erik Menendez confessed to him on Sept. 1, 1989, Cignarelli spent the night at the Menendez mansion.

On Thursday, Whalen said that Erik Menendez spent that day with him, not Cignarelli, and Whalen said that Erik Menendez spent that night--and the next several nights--at Whalen’s house.

Cignarelli boasted that his rights to the Menendez story could mean big money, Whalen said.

But under cross-examination by Deputy Dist. Atty. Lester Kuriyama, Whalen found his own motives and memory under attack. He conceded that he had offered to be a character witness for Erik Menendez, adding that he had visited him in jail but insisting that they had not talked about the case there. Whalen also said he and Cignarelli might be rivals for Erik Menendez’s friendship.