A former member of 1980s boy band Menudo has alleged that he was drugged and sexually assaulted by record label boss José Menendez – who was shot to death in 1989 by sons Erik and Lyle Menendez.
“I know what he did to me in his house,” Roy Rosselló said in the forthcoming docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
Rosselló was a member of Menudo – which counts Ricky Martin among its former members – from the ages of 13 to 16. He claimed he was taken to Menendez’s New Jersey home by Menudo manager Edgardo Díaz, whom he also accuses of sexual assaulting him. (Díaz has previously denied allegations of abuse.)
Pointing to a photo of Menendez, Rosselló said: “That’s the man here that raped me. This guy. That’s the pedophile.”
Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of shooting their father and mother Kitty and sentenced to life in prison. They had claimed the murders were self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father but a trial judge ruled their claim was inadmissible.
“My dad was one of the guys who was choosing …the new members of the group,” Erik recalled, via telephone, in Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed. “I remember specifically taking one of the kids and going off and saying he wanted to talk to him alone and they went off into the house, upstairs.”
Lyle said in the series that he and his brother had “heard rumours that something might have happened with Menudo through the years.”
In last year’s docuseries Menudo: Forever Young, Angelo Garcia said he was repeatedly raped during his time as a member of the group between 1988 and 1990. Although he did not name his abuser, Garcia said he was plied with booze before being sexually assaulted.
At least 30 boys were members of Menudo during the group's initial run between 1977 and 2002.