Judge Overrules Lyle Menendez’s Wedding Plans

The bride-to-be wore a white suit, rhinestone buttons and a worried expression.

But the groom was a no-show Monday for reasons that had nothing to do with cold feet.

Lyle Menendez and his intended, Anna Eriksson, had the license. He’d declared his love for her on national television. And they’d lined up a judge to officiate at the nuptials.

They just didn’t have the cooperation of Los Angeles County court and jail officials.

First, Lyle’s ride from jail to the secret courthouse wedding was canceled by a supervising Superior Court judge, John H. Reid, who overruled the judge willing to perform the nuptials, Nancy Brown.

Then, when Brown offered to drive over to the Men’s Central Jail to perform the ceremony, jail officials rejected the plan, saying it violates the policy that requires permission from the sentencing judge.

“This poor guy can’t even get married,” said a visibly vexed Leslie Abramson, who defended Lyle’s brother, Erik, through two murder trials. She added that she cannot “tolerate any more cruelty.”

“He loves this woman and she loves him,” Abramson said. “But they aren’t allowed to have any romance.”

And so 28-year-old Lyle Menendez will be single today when he and brother Erik, 25, are sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their millionaire parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. According to Sheriff’s Department policy, Lyle must petition Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg for permission to get married. It is not clear how Weisberg would rule.

Lyle had hoped to marry Eriksson, his longtime pen pal and supporter, on the eve of his sentencing during a simple secret ceremony performed by Brown in her 15th-floor courtroom in the downtown Criminal Courts Building.

But when the clock on the wall struck 11 a.m.--the appointed hour--no groom was in sight.

The bride wrung her hands, and the other invited guests all were assembled: The groom’s aunt, Teresita Baralt; his lawyer during the first trial, Jill Lansing; his public defenders from the retrial, Charles Gessler and Terri Towery; a Roman Catholic priest who has advised the brothers, Father Ken Deasy, and Abramson.

Also in attendance were a dozen reporters, who instead of a wedding were treated to a rare news conference from the bench--and a lesson on what happens when romance runs head-on into judicial politics.

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Brown angrily accused Reid of meddling with the wedding plans by canceling the groom’s ride from the Men’s Central Jail while she was away last week on vacation. She said she was “offended” by his interference, and by his statement that he was “saving” her from scrutiny by the Commission on Judicial Performance. Reid had no comment, according to a court spokeswoman.

Brown also said Reid told sheriff’s officials that he didn’t think taxpayers should foot the bill for the sheriff to bring Lyle and Erik to Brown’s courtroom for a wedding.

Nobody seemed to know Monday just how much that bill would be.

But Brown said that she has performed weddings for many defendants during her 28 years on the bench and that this is the first time another judge has canceled her order to bring a prospective groom to court.

The couple, who met by mail long after the brothers’ 1990 arrest, are legally entitled to be married, Brown said. A frequent spectator at the brothers’ retrial, Eriksson was dubbed “Rapunzel” by other frequent spectators because of her flowing blond hair that reached below her waist.

Brown issued an order to the Sheriff’s Department June 12 to bring the brothers to her courtroom Monday for Lyle’s wedding. Brown added that she swore her court staff to secrecy to prevent “a media circus.”

But Reid, an assistant supervising judge, overruled Brown’s order Friday after several news organizations inquired about rumored wedding plans.

Lyle Menendez revealed his intentions in an interview with Barbara Walters that aired last week on ABC’s “20/20,” saying he wanted to marry “someone who I love very much” and naming Eriksson.

She would not speak with reporters.