Ex-Menudo member claims Menendez Brothers’ father raped him as teen
LOS ANGELES — A former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo contends in a documentary series being released next month that he was sexually assaulted as a teenager by Jose Menendez, who was killed in Beverly Hills in 1989 along with his wife by their sons, Erik and Lyle Menendez.
Roy Rosselló makes the allegation in a Peacock documentary series set for release in May called “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” Clips of the series were aired Tuesday on the “Today” show.
Rosselló, now 51, said Jose Menendez drugged and sexually assaulted him when he was 14 years old during a visit to the Menendez home in New Jersey. Menendez was an executive at RCA Records, which signed Menudo to a recording contract.
“I know what he did to me in his house,” Rosselló says in the clips of the series that were aired Tuesday. In another segment, he points to a picture of Jose Menendez and says, “That’s the man here that raped me. That’s the pedophile.”
Jose Menendez and his wife, Mary Louise, or “Kitty,” were gunned down by their sons in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. Erik and Lyle Menendez alleged they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by their father and feared for their lives. Prosecutors, however, said the killings were financially motivated, pointing to lavish spending sprees by the brothers after the killings.
The Menendez brothers were convicted in the mid-1990s of murder and sentenced to life in prison. They continue to appeal their convictions. It was unclear of Rosselló’s allegations might lend credence to their claims of sexual abuse by their father.
In the docuseries, Rosselló also alleges he was sexually abused in the mid-1980s by one of Menudo’s managers, Edgardo Diaz. Allegations against Diaz surfaced from other group members last year in an HBO Max documentary series titled “Menudo: Forever Young.” Diaz has denied any wrongdoing.