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Dr. Jerome Oziel and his mistress Judalon Smyth played a pivotal role in how the Menendez brothers' case went down. Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, explores in detail the brutal double murder of the Menendez couple by their sons, and the role played by Oziel and his mistress Smyth in the arrest and conviction of the murderers.
Oziel was the Menendez brothers' therapist and he likely shared a confession made by one of the brothers to the killing of their parents, with his then-partner Judalon Smyth. Soon after the couple broke up, in March 1990, Smyth tipped off the police regarding the existence of an audiotaped recording of the confession, which kickstarted the trial and arrest of the brothers.
What happened to Judalon Smyth in the Menendez brothers' case?
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Judalon Smyth was perhaps the defense’s greatest gift during the first trial. Smyth and Oziel shared a sexual as well as a business relationship where Oziel had revealed to her about the taped confessions from the Menendez brothers confessing to their crimes, which he possessed. When Oziel broke up with Smyth, she came clean about her knowledge of the tapes to the police and testified too.
Smyth also claimed that Oziel emotionally and sexually abused her and testified about the “Sex IOU” she had to give Oziel, which is a contract-like document promising her devotion. She proved to enter the case at a pivotal moment which led to the speeding up of trial due to the revelation of the existence of evidence.
However, her accusations against Oziel did not lead to anything in court as the latter denied the allegations against him and prosecutors believed that a criminal case against him would be fruitless as it would be pitting his words against hers.
In a 2015 interview about her Menendez trial experience to the Reelz Channel’s Murder Made Me Famous docuseries, Smyth talked about the media’s depiction of her:
“It was a little confusing for me the way the media was. I really didn’t understand the attack I was going to come under for doing the right thing.”
She also admitted that she didn’t immediately go to authorities when she discovered the confession tape:
“It took a long time for me to do the right thing. But ultimately, I did.”
According to Smyth's LinkedIn profile, she did not work for 10 years after the Menendez trial. From 2006 to 2012 she worked as a travel agent and in 2012 she retrained as an EMT. Smyth lives in Los Angeles now.
Did the recordings revealed by Judalon Smyth lead to the Menendez brothers' conviction?
Although there was a debate on whether the recorded tapes would be admissible in court in the brothers' trial, two of the four tapes were finally allowed. On the basis of those tapes and the unusual activities by the Menendez brothers following the death of their parents, like splurging and reckless spending, they were declared guilty of the murder of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Catch the story of the spine-chilling brutal double murder of the Menendez couple and the conviction of the Menendez brothers in the case in the recently released Netflix series.
