Jurors’ Rift Emerged Early and Ran Deep

The testimony had taken five months, but two of the men on the Erik Menendez jury were sure they would have a verdict in an hour.

What was there to argue about? The younger Menendez brother was obviously guilty of first-degree murder. He was a baldfaced liar, making up that stuff about being molested by his father.

So after their jury went behind closed doors in the late afternoon of Dec. 15, both men thought they would be done in no time. Pick a foreman. Vote. Go home.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Soon they were listening to another juror, a woman, passionately telling of her personal experience in an abusive relationship. She knew a victim of abuse when she saw one--and Erik Menendez, to her, fit the bill.

Almost immediately, the panel--sharply divided along gender lines--was arguing bitterly. The men against the women. It almost came to blows.

“We were split in half,” said Mark Dearing, 45, a Northridge electrician who was pushing for first-degree murder.

Nineteen days later, that jury had given up trying to agree on anything, while a second panel continued to argue the fate of Lyle Menendez, the older of the Beverly Hills brothers accused of murdering their millionaire parents. On Friday, it too was declared deadlocked.

Finally free to discuss the case, seven jurors later described weeks of frustrating and tense deliberations. In both juries, the gulf between factions was vast--and no evidence, testimony or argument could draw them into common ground.

On one extreme was Lyle Menendez juror Sharyn S. Bishop, 43, of Northridge, who believed that although both brothers “need a lot of help, no doubt,” she wouldn’t mind having the older one as a neighbor.

“I don’t think Lyle is a threat to society,” she said. “If he lived across the street from me, I wouldn’t be afraid.”

On the other end of the spectrum sat Jude Nelson, 52, an unemployed marketing representative from Sylmar, who called the evidence against Lyle Menendez “a classic first-degree murder case.”

“We really wanted to come to a consensus,” Nelson said. “But I just wasn’t going to let these guys walk and have manslaughter.”

Although the jury votes unsealed Friday reflected almost even splits on both panels, there were differences between the two. Discussions among the Lyle Menendez jurors were more civil. It wasn’t just men against women.

On the Erik Menendez jury, in contrast, some felt that others arrived with their minds made up, creating, in the words of Hazel Thornton, “too much prejudice . . . to overcome.”

“There was . . . not enough concentration on evidence and the law,” said Thornton, a 36-year-old Lake View Terrace resident who voted for voluntary manslaughter. The Pacific Bell employee said to Associated Press that some jurors had a “bias against rich people and homosexuals.”

Leslie Abramson, Erik Menendez’s lead attorney, echoed that description, saying the jury went through “basically a war” that included “some threat of physicality.”

In that war, several of the jurors saw Abramson as their triumphant general.

Although computer aficionados on the Prodigy bulletin board often poked fun at her famous frizzy blond hair, and although prosecutors were enraged at times by her aggressive style, the women on the Erik Menendez jury loved her--they admired her wardrobe and biting wit.

“Leslie--what a pit bull,” said Bishop, an admirer on the Lyle Menendez jury. “But if I needed a lawyer I’d want (that) one.”

The admiration did not end when the Erik Menendez trial did. Abramson disclosed Friday that she had been host to several jurors at a seven-hour dinner party at her Hancock Park home recently.

“The biggest problem with Erik’s jury was it was a mix of individuals who could not work together,” Abramson at the courthouse.

Reflecting differences noticed throughout the trial among the public, the women on Erik Menendez’s jury were more likely to be swayed by the tales of sexual abuse, many said, while men saw the issue as either incredible or irrelevant.

“There’s a possibility (of abuse), but I don’t think that would rectify the fact that they did take the law into their hands to kill their parents,” said juror Robert Rakestraw, 53, a full-time postal carrier from Canoga Park who voted for first-degree murder. “I don’t think that justifies their actions, if molestation did occur.”

Jurors declined Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg’s offer Friday to use his courtroom to meet with reporters. Many did not want to talk about the marathon trial when called at home.

But the jurors who agreed to be interviewed by telephone seemed to see the case as defined by the defense’s contention that the brothers had been sexually abused. Many said that the determining factor was whether they believed that claim--not the prosecution’s contention that the brothers were driven by hatred and greed.

“Nobody on our jury believed they did it for money,” said Bishop, a member of Lyle Menendez’s panel, whose 25 days of deliberations were interrupted by the Northridge earthquake. In contrast to Erik Menendez’s jury, this group was relatively harmonious.

Although the jurors sometimes merely “tolerated one another,” Nelson said, they were generally able to consider each others’ views--thanks in part to the valiant mediation of the foreman, a 35-year-old Van Nuys mail carrier.

“I raised all kinds of hell. . . . We all spoke our piece,” said Nelson, 52, who held out for first-degree murder and said he was frustrated with the deadlock. “I have a hunch in the back of my mind this defense was drummed up somewhere.”

Jill Lansing, Lyle Menendez’s lawyer, said jurors told her that “at one point, the vote was split 9 for voluntary manslaughter and 3 for second-degree murder”--a more forgiving assessment than the final tally.

Although notes to the judge from the Erik Menendez jury indicated little movement among its members from start to finish, the shifting vote on the Lyle Menendez jury seemed to confirm that its members were actively weighing one another’s viewpoints--perhaps, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Bozanich, until the very end.

“People were switching between voluntary (manslaughter) and murder and . . . they were switching between the degrees as well,” Bozanich said after her brief private talk with some of Lyle Menendez’s jurors. “I got the impression that they were switching as recently as today.”

But many of the jurors concluded their half-year of service depressed--feeling badly that no verdicts were reached.

“I have some advice for the prosecution,” said Thornton, the Erik Menendez juror. “Get some more evidence and prove it in a convincing manner.”

Another juror, meanwhile, worried that she and her colleagues would be mocked for their inability to resolve the case.

“I gave it my all,” said Ruth Slike, 60, a retired homemaker from Sun Valley who served on the Lyle Menendez jury. “I don’t think the general public thinks the jury is any more than a bunch of idiots.”

Times correspondent Ed Bond contributed to this story.

The Jurors

These sketches of the jurors for Lyle and Erik Menendez are drawn from the questionnaires each juror filled out before the trial and from various public records:

LYLE MENENDEZ JURY

1--A Canoga Park man, 42. Driver, United Parcel Service. Single; married before and has a 12-year-old son. College graduate. Collects sports cards. Owns a .22-caliber rifle. Registered Democrat.

2--A Tarzana woman, 50. Part-time administrator, Volunteer League of San Fernando Valley. Married for 26 years. Husband is a deputy district attorney. Two daughters in their 20s. Regrets having spanked her children. Owns a .22-caliber rifle. Registered Republican.

3--A Northridge woman, 49. Benefits analyst, Southern California Gas Co. Married for 30 years. Husband is an insurance agent. Has one daughter, 28. Husband owns rifles. Registered Republican.

4--A Sylmar man, 52. Looking for work. Single; married before and has three children in their 30s. Shaved his bushy white beard when deliberations began. Used to own a shotgun. Registered Democrat.

5--A Sun Valley woman, 61. Widowed after being married 38 years, a self-described “retired housewife.” Two daughters in their 30s, three grandchildren. Religious Methodist. Owns no guns. Registered Republican. Originally an alternate juror, but replaced a Canoga Park man dismissed early in the trial for undisclosed reasons.

6--A Granada Hills man, 67. Retired operating engineer. Widowed after being married 37 years. Has two grown sons. Served in the Navy as a firefighter in 1943. Owns a pistol. Originally an alternate juror, but replaced a 38-year-old Newhall woman dismissed for hardship.

7--A West Hills woman, 23. Administrative assistant, Veterans Administration hospital. Attends college at night. Single. Owns no guns. Registered Republican.

8--A Northridge woman, 44. Works at Cal State Northridge. Single. Has lived in the same house her entire life. Religious Protestant. Brother is a lieutenant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Proud of a recent 80-pound weight loss. Owns no guns. Registered Democrat.

9--A Tujunga man, 60. Mechanic for city of Los Angeles. Married for 25 years; one prior marriage. Two daughters, two grandchildren. Wife is a checker at Sav-On. Owns rifles as target guns. Registered Democrat.

10--A Van Nuys man, 35. Mail handler, Postal Service. Married for 12 years. High school graduate with some college. Owns a rifle and a revolver. Registered Republican. Foreman of the jury.

11--A Canoga Park woman, 32. Program technician, State Compensation Insurance Fund. Single. High school graduate with some college. Owns no guns.

12--A West Hills woman, 26. Works as a secretary. Single. Describes herself as a Cuban American. High school graduate with some college. Watches “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills 90210.” Owns no guns. Registered Republican.

ERIK MENENDEZ JURY

1--A Topanga man, 65. Retired Hughes Corp. electrical engineer. Married for three years; two prior marriages. Two grown children. Wife teaches English as a second language in Los Angeles schools. High school graduate. Served as a chief petty officer in the Navy from 1946 to 1966. Saw combat in Korea and Vietnam.

2--A Granada Hills man, 57. Senior communications specialist at GTE. Married for 36 years; wife is retired nurse for the Veterans Administration. Two grown daughters. Visits jails when he installs phone lines. Air Force airman, 1956-60. Baptist who attends church three times a week. Used to own a rifle. Registered Democrat.

3--A Tujunga woman, 36. Records clerk. Single. Had an alcohol problem, but has been sober for five years. A niece once was raped in Washington state; the rapist was sent to prison for 35 years. Used to own a shotgun and rifle. Registered Republican.

4--A Burbank woman, 27. Clerk, Waldenbooks. Single. Father was murdered three years ago; the killer was sentenced to life in prison. Associate’s degree in English literature. Describes her religion as “monotheistic.” Registered Democrat.

5--A Northridge man, 46. Senior electrician, Los Angeles Department of Airports. Single, but has been living with a woman for six years. Married once; has a 26-year-old son. Served in Marine Corps, 1966-68; team leader in Vietnam. Owns bolt-action rifles, pistols and shotguns for protection and

sport, and as investments. Girlfriend lost a brother and sister to violent crime. Registered Republican.

6--A Northridge man, 60. Professor and acting dean at Cal State Northridge. Married for 27 years. Two grown children. Administers $8-million annual budget; supervises 160 people. Served in the Army. Owns no guns. Registered Democrat. Brother was hit by a car in 1952; grandfather was beaten to death in the 1960s. Foreman of the jury.

7--A North Hills woman, 37. Homemaker. Married for 15 years. Four children. Husband is an unemployed forklift driver. High school graduate. Registered Democrat. Spent a night in jail as a teen-age runaway.

8--A Sepulveda man, 52. Mailman. Single; lives with a woman who is a social worker. Was once married and has three grown children. Used to be with the Los Angeles Police Department but left because he “disagreed with some of the unwritten policies.” Holds the office of Worshipful Master at his Masonic Lodge. A relative is a judge. Owns handguns, rifles and shotguns for sport and protection. Registered Democrat.

9--A Lake View Terrace woman, 36. Single. Engineer and planner, Pacific Bell. Father a minister. Three younger brothers. Inactive member of a number of environmental groups and the National Organization for Women. Reads murder mysteries.

10--A North Hollywood woman, 52. Maintenance administrator, Pacific Bell. Single; two prior marriages. Two grown children; a third child, a son, died a couple of years ago at age 32. Likes bowling. Religious Protestant who attends holiday and special services. Registered Republican.

11--A Sunland woman, 51. Works for husband’s engineering firm. Married for eight years; one prior marriage. Two children, three stepchildren. Portuguese American who learned English in less than a year. Registered Republican.

12--A Canoga Park man, 53. Mailman. Married for 17 years; three prior marriages. Three grown sons. Plays golf. Owns no guns. Father was shot to death in 1952.