Judge Judy sues the National Enquirer owner for defamation over ‘fabricated’ claim she was on a ‘quest’ to save the Menendez brothers

Famed TV personality Judge Judy has sued the parent company of the National Enquirer over a “fabricated” claim that she was on a personal mission to save the Menendez brothers, some 35 years after the murder of their parents.

Accelerate360 and A360 Media are listed as the defendants in a lawsuit, seen by DailyMail.com, filed on behalf of Judy Sheindlin in Collier County, Florida.

Lyle and Erik Menendez are currently in prison serving life sentences without parole for fatally shooting their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in the study of the family’s Beverly Hills home in 1989.

The brothers, now both in their fifties, were convicted of the double murder during trial in 1996.

Last month, In Touch Weekly – an American tabloid with the same parent company as the National Enquirer – published an article entitled: ‘Inside Judge Judy’s Quest to Save the Menendez Brothers Nearly 35 Years After Their Parents’ Murder.

Erik, now 53, and his brother Lyle, 56, are serving life without parole for fatally shooting their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989 in the study of their Beverly Hills mansion.

Versions of the story were subsequently published elsewhere, including, according to the lawsuit, in the National Enquirer, which featured on its front pages “True crime! Judge Judy’s FIGHT FOR LYLE & ERIK!’

The article itself was headlined, “BALONEY! Judge Judy on Warpath to save the Menéndez brothers.”

The lawsuit alleges that several of A360 Media’s publications have damaged the judge’s impeccable reputation, which she spent six decades establishing.

“In one fell swoop, the reputation cultivated by Judge Sheindlin has suffered a blow in the form of a report full of ‘facts’ that have reduced her to an idiot, a fool – or worse,” the complaint reads.

“Defendants were motivated by a desire to generate more headlines, a larger audience, and more advertising revenue through the inclusion of Judge Sheindlin, despite the absence of any basis for doing so.”

In a statement to DailyMail.com on Monday, Sheindlin said of the need for the lawsuit: “If you make up stories about me to make money for yourself, without regard for the truth or the reputation I have spent a lifetime building, it’s going to cost you.

“Once you’ve done it multiple times, it’s unconscionable and expensive. It has to be expensive so that you stop doing it.’

Judge Judy Sheindlin is represented by attorney Eric George. She is seeking an unspecified amount of damages, but one “that exceeds the minimum jurisdictional limits of this Court.”

The judge and her lawyers have also demanded a speedy trial by jury.

The lawsuit is likely to put the American media company’s journalistic practices under a magnifying glass, which could be a boon for Sheindlin and her team, as former A360 Media Chairman and CEO David Pecker has gone on record as saying, “Inventing stories and obsessing over them,” according to the lawsuit. being by ratings is par for the course at the National Enquirer.”

David Parry, the president and CEO of Accelerate360, is involved in the lawsuit

“In one fell swoop, the reputation cultivated by Judge Sheindlin has suffered a blow in the form of a report filled with ‘facts’ that reduce her to a rube, a fool – or worse,” the lawsuit reads.

In his testimony on the National Enquirer, Pecker admitted that the 2016 publication consisted entirely of a story about Senator Ted Cruz’s father appearing in a photo with Lee Harvey Oswald – a story that is still referenced on the internet to this day .

Additionally, Sheindlin’s lawsuit claims that this wouldn’t be the first time the National Enquirer has seriously fabricated information about her.

In 2017, the publication posted a retraction that read:

‘The National ENQUIRER and sister publication The National Examiner recently published articles claiming that Judge Judy Sheindlin was suffering from a ‘brain disease’, ‘battling’ both Alzheimer’s and depression, and ‘hiding a heartbreaking medical crisis.’

“We also published articles claiming that Judge Judy had cheated on her husband and that her daughter Nicole Sheindlin was facing jail time for refusing to serve on a jury. None of these statements are true, and we unequivocally retract them.”

The Menendez brothers are currently hoping that new evidence will reopen their case and allow them to walk free after decades in prison

Judge Judy Sheindlin was identified by multiple media outlets as a defender of the brothers’ efforts to reopen their case

Details of the lawsuit, filed in the 20th Judicial Circuit Court, show that Sheindlin and her attorneys have specifically identified a number of instances in which the publications being sued credit Sheindlin for things she never said and claim she never done.

Some of those named in the lawsuit claim that ‘Lyle and Erik Menendez ‘have gained a powerful ally in their quest for a new trial: Judge Judy Sheindlin.’

Judge Sheindlin was also reported to have said in a FOX Nation docuseries that “the proceedings that put the brothers in jail were ‘rigged.’

Additionally, the former TV judge says the media reported that she “begged Leslie Abramson — the defendant’s attorney — to demand Weisberg avenge himself in favor of a new judge.”

The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that the defendants “completely misquoted source material, correctly identifying the actual speaker of the disputed statements by a name other than Judy Sheindlin.”