Donovan Goodreau & Robert Rand Tapes
TW: mentions of the sexual abuse of children
Donovan Goodreau was the best friend of Lyle Menendez and at one point was the roommate to his girlfriend Jamie Pisarcik. Goodreau and Menendez established a quick bond and very quickly became best friends while at Princeton University
Other people in their immediate circle started to notice odd behavior in Goodreau such as catching him in lies, the biggest lie being that he wasn’t even a student at Princeton University. What had ended the friendship between Goodreau and Menendez was that some money from Lyle had been stolen and it was assumed by other friends of Lyle that Donovan was the culprit since Jamie (Lyle’s girlfriend) claimed that some money of hers went missing while Donovan was living with her.
The reason why Donovan Goodreau is such a major part in this case is because he was called by the prosecution because Lyle Menendez testified that one night while the two were eating at a Chinese restaurant, Donovan revealed to Lyle that he had been molested by a friend of his father and Lyle revealed to Donovan that both him and Erik had been molested as well by their father. This talk between Donovan and Lyle happened in Spring of 1989, months before the killings happened.
In the 1993 trial, Donovan claimed on the witness stand that Lyle never told him about the sexual abuse but in 1992 he told Robert Rand in a tape recorded interview that Lyle did tell him about the abuse.
However, after the brothers had been arrested, the journalist Robert Rand interviewed Donovan Goodreau on December 7, 1990 about the sexual abuse (before the defense in the case, which was the sexual abuse was made public).
1992 Tape Recording Between Robert Rand and Donovan Goodreau
Rand: I heard something this week that sexual abuse might be the kind of defense they try to do.
Goodreau Oh, no, no, don't tell me they're gonna do that.
Rand: Yeah, that's what I heard. Nothing definite.
Goodreau: You know what's gonna happen. Lyle's gonna tell him, well, if you don't believe me, ask Donovan. (laughter) I told him, they're just gonna have like a microscope all over me. Are you kidding?
Rand: I don't think they'll try to pull you in if it's bullshit.
Goodreau: No, see, the reason he told me that - he did tell me a lot of things about his father and stuff, but it's like I always thought he was doing that to lure me into maybe believing his objective, but he never told me why he was doing it, why he was telling me. It didn't make sense until afterwards. You know what I'm saying - he told me a lot about their past and stuff and it was similar to my past. I too, was molested as a child, and I told him and I guess that opened the gate and he told me and it was like, wow!
Rand: Did he say that he was molested?
Goodreau: I, uh, yeah. Lyle and his brother were molested. But it's like he didn't - he wasn't clear. He was never clear.
October 1991 - Rand had lunch with Goodreau in New York.
Goodreau: "Lyle started telling me stories about Jose sexually abusing Erik when he was little. He said they took showers and baths together. The big bathtub in the new house was for sex scenes."
(October 1989 - Erik Menendez told Rand in a tape recorded interview: "Instead of going to the movies with my friends I would just stay home with him [Jose]. And, uh, in fact it was weird. We'd even take showers together. With Lyle, my - he got this big bathtub and Lyle, me, and my dad would just - we would take showers together, we would do everything together....")
This proves not only that Donovan Goodreau lied about the molestation on the witness stand but that the sexual abuse was still going on. The October 1989 Robert Rand tape also shows how normal this behavior was for Erik and he even states "in fact it was weird" showing that maybe as he was saying it out loud, he realized how odd it was.
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