Was Menudo the Key to the Menendez Murders?

I don't even know where to start here with Peacock's "Menendez+Menudo: Boys Betrayed," but I will say stop reading if you don't want potential SPOILERS. 

Keep reading BELOW. 

Horrifying to learn that onetime Menudo member Roy Rossello was used as a sex slave as a boy by group creator/manager Edgardo Diaz -- and even more horrifying to realize there's no doubt about this because his fellow band members HATED him at the time because they considered him Diaz's "lover" who got preferential treatment. (Kudos to those who have apologized, acknowledging there's no such thing as a "consensual" relationship between a man and a 13-year-old -- and even if there were this wouldn't be a case of it.) 

The story's twist is that Rossello claims that Diaz also essentially pimped him out for the night to Jose Menendez -- the father of Lyle and Erik, who say he raped them throughout their childhoods -- when Jose signed Menudo to RCA Records as president of the label. ("It'll be good for the band," Rossello says Diaz told him before he was drugged and later woke up bleeding from his rectum.) This, of course, would have been incredibly useful evidence for the Menendez brothers back when they were on trial for murdering their parents. Like many, I was pretty obsessed with the Menendez case, vacillating between believing them and not, and also feeling that even if it were true, it doesn't excuse the type of premeditated murder they committed. Over years, however, I've softened and have seen people do far less than 30 years in prison for crimes with no mitigating factors, so I'm curious if this new information will get the brothers anywhere.

 

My gut is Rossello is telling the truth, but I was chagrined when he said he'd never told a soul about this Menendez rape until now. But then I was startled to see there in fact was a contemporaneous article (by gossip columnist Linda Stasi) alleging a connection between Menudo and Menendez -- albeit calling it a "sexual relationship" between Jose and a former band member -- which only increased my belief in Rossello's story. 

Creepy Dad alert, far left

What the documentary doesn't seem to want to address is that Rossello says he is actively trying to pursue criminal charges against Diaz -- who has been accused of sexual abuse of boys numerous times over the years, always escaping culpability -- when we all know the statute of limitations on this type of crime has to have run out. When one person finally asked him if he was pursuing a civil complaint -- which can be done in certain places now that laws have lifted statutes in some cases of sexual abuse -- Rossello adamantly said no, "criminal." 

I wish Rossello all the best -- and warn potential viewers that this docuseries is incredibly disturbing.