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Showed adults engaging in sex acts in front of children. >> and we saw a few seconds of it, a few minutes. and we made excuses. a lot of us stood up and said, "we have to leave." we couldn't stand to see it, to watch it. >> reporter: but jose found this engaging. >> oh, hysterically funny. >> reporter: these stories of the menendez family had been buried for years, until the sons were charged with murder. and she signed on to defend them. veteran criminal defense attorney leslie abramson, known for her brash style in the courtroom, and with the press. >> you want that? that's what you get toda...

>> oh, so they'd argue a lot? >> oh, yeah. a lot. and i think a lot of it was about the kids. >> what was your impression of them? >> they were kinda quiet. they weren't that friendly, but it seemed like they were a bit troubled. and you know, i know they were afraid of him. >> afraid of their father, jose. >> i saw him just stare them down a couple of times -- >> but after jose was murdered, lyle and erik seemed to be afraid of noel bloom. they told police they thought bloom may have killed their parents and might want to kill them, too. bloom had been arrested before on obscenity charges, bu...

Decision turned a local l.a. story into an international sensation. how big was it? the menendez trial was the case that put an entire network, court tv, on the broadcast landscape. >> reporter: prosecutor pam bozanich knew all of america was watching her every move. >> how did you feel as you prepared to make your opening statement? >> as i walked down the hallway, all the cameras were there. and, you know, i just threw up. 'cause i thought, "oh, god. you know, this is really stressful." so -- >> reporter: what's more, prosecutor bozanich was going up against two fierce opponents. leslie abra...

>> reporter: but before that second trial could begin -- oj happened. and suddenly the stakes were even bigger. >> when o.j. went home, we were nationally considered to be losers. >> reporter: the second menendez trial began just eight days after oj's acquittal -- with judge weisberg presiding again. the same judge -- the same case, but this time the trial was fundamentally different. >> the first major ruling judge weisberg made was, "no tv camera in the courtroom." >> reporter: this time, one jury for both brothers. judge weisberg also scaled back testimony about the brothers' alleged physic...

>> as the months rolled by, i got more and more pieces of information. and it got worse and worse and worse as to what was going on in his family. until finally the dam broke. >> reporter: erik and lyle's cousin alan andersen had lived with the menendez family, and knew the public didn't understand. >> they just knew that, "okay, we got these rich kids, boom, shot their parents. now they're -- think they're multimillionaires," well, that's not the case. >> reporter: alan had begun thinking back to some very disturbing things he had witnessed at the menendez house, as had cousin diane hernandez...