Judalon Smyth Helped Get the Menendez Brothers Captured and Is One Heck of a Character

When it comes to the Menendez brothers trials, there were many moments that stood out in people's minds. Obviously, the devastating testimonies from Erik and Lyle Menendez about the alleged abuse they experienced at the hands of their father was the most polarizing. Both brothers broke down on the stand multiple times, as they struggled to describe instances of sexual assault and physical violence that played out in their Beverly Hills mansion.

Believe it or not, the trial was not without the occasional bits of levity. One of the more memorable witnesses was a woman by the name of Judalon Smyth. Not only was she the first person to go to the police with information regarding Erik and Lyle Menendez's involvement in the murders, but an affair she was having at the time somewhat played out on the stand. So, where is Judalon Smyth now? We wish her well.

Smyth has maintained a low profile since the trials finally ended in 1996. Can anyone blame her? It was such a high-profile case that it catapulted all involved into the public eye. She resurfaced in 2015, in Reelz' Murder Made Me Famous where she touched on the fallout from the trial.

"It was a little confusing for me the way the media was," she said. "I really didn’t understand the attack I was going to come under for doing the right thing." Much of the blowback was due to the fact that Smyth didn't immediately go to the police when she found out Erik and Lyle Menendez had killed their parents. At the time, she was dating Erik's therapist Dr. Jerome Oziel, which is where she overheard his confession. When Oziel allegedly abused her, she finally went to the cops in March 1990.

Smyth recalled how terrible the press was during and after the trial. "There was some paper that said something about me having loose lips,” she said. "It’s like, excuse me. If that was your mother and father getting murdered, would you like someone to have tight lips or loose lips?" The negative attention by the press was frightening. "I mean, it took a long time for me to do the right thing,” said Smyth. "But ultimately, I did."

If Smyth's LinkedIn profile is to be believed, there is a 10 year gap in her resume starting in 1996 and ending in 2006 when she got a job as a leisure travel consultant. It's probably not a coincidence that the trial ended when her job prospects dried up. She more or less stayed in the travel industry until 2012, then left to become some sort of cosmetology professional. That lasted a little over a year. From there, Smyth trained to become an EMT.

According to Vanity Fair, Smyth met Oziel a year before the murders when she called his clinic in an effort to find a mental health professional who could help her figure out why she keeps dating terrible men. To no one's surprise, she was unable to break that pattern with Oziel as she soon entered into a relationship with the married man.

She fell in love with him before they met, through hours and hours of phone conversations. When they were finally face-to-face, Smyth said she was relieved to discover she did not find him attractive at all. "He kept trying to get physical right away," she said while explaining that Oziel simply wasn't her type. When he finally wore her down, she told Vanity Fair the sex was awful. Somehow it got better after the third time.