LAS VEGAS (AP) — Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said he was optimistic three key documents needed to begin construction on a new stadium for the Athletics would be approved Dec. 5.
“We're rounding third and heading for home,” Hill said after Thursday's Las Vegas Stadium Authority board meeting.
Hill and the LVCVA were so hopeful the approvals would come at that December meeting that three others were canceled. The board will next meet Oct. 17, and a meeting has been set aside for Dec. 12 as a “safety valve.”
The three documents that need to be approved for the planned $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat domed stadium on the Las Vegas Strip are the lease, non-relocation and development agreements. The lease agreement was presented Thursday without a vote.
That agreement provides an initial 30-year lease that ultimately can be extended up to 99 years. The agreement for the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders is 30 years without language beyond that time frame.
Allegiant Stadium, which is home to the Raiders, opened in 2020. The A's hope to open their ballpark in time for the 2028 season.
“I think mostly it wasn’t contemplated in 2016 when we passed the law,” Hill said. “You don't necessarily need that information in the law. It gives us optionality. We talked about it during the process that we’re going to get to 15 or 20 years and the parties involved will probably reopen the lease and renegotiate it.”
This is the A’s final season in Oakland. They agreed to play the following three seasons, with an option for a fourth, in a Triple-A stadium in West Sacramento, California. The A’s will share that facility with the River Cats, the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A club.
The A's have said they expected to spend $350 million in public money rather than the $380 million allocated by the Nevada Legislature.
The club has said it plans to finance $300 million of the stadium cost and the other $850 million would come from private equity. Hill said it's possible the A's could present their financing plan at the October meeting.
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Oakland Athletics' JJ Bleday (33) and Zack Gelof (20) celebrate with teammates after a baseball game against the New York Mets, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in New York. The Athletics won 7-6. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
FILE - The Oakland Athletics and their design teams released renderings, March 5, 2024 of the club's planned stadium in Las Vegas. (Negativ via AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge will decide Monday whether new evidence warrants a re-examination of the convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez in the shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills home more than 30 years ago.
The brothers were found guilty of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. While their defense attorneys argued at trial that they had been sexually abused by their father, prosecutors denied that and accused them of killing their parents for money. In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.
Now, at 53 and 56, Erik and Lyle Menendez are making a new bid for freedom. Their lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a court to examine whether someone is being lawfully detained — in May 2023, asking a judge to consider new evidence of their father's sexual abuse. “Newly discovered evidence directly supports the defense presented at trial,” the petition said.
The recent releases of the Netflix drama “ Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menendez Story ” and the documentary “The Menendez Brothers" in 2024 brought renewed public attention to their plight. Members of the public will be given the opportunity to win a seat in the courtroom to catch a glimpse of the brothers, who will be appearing virtually.
Prosecutors recommended resentencing for the brothers last month, saying they have worked on redemption and rehabilitation and demonstrated good behavior inside prison.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón held a news conference less than two weeks before Election Day, asking for new sentences of 50 years to life. This could make them immediately eligible for parole because they were less than 26 years old when they killed their parents.
Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic is scheduled to consider the resentencing request on Dec. 11, but on Monday, he'll first address the abuse evidence raised in the habeas petition. Immediate freedom is one possible result; the judge also might weigh in on the merits of the evidence. And if the brothers don’t get relief in court, they can hope California’s governor will grant them clemency.
The new evidence includes a letter Erik Menendez wrote in 1988 to his uncle Andy Cano, describing the sexual abuse he had endured from his father. The brothers asked their lawyers about it after it was mentioned in a 2015 Barbara Walters television special. The lawyers hadn't known of the letter and realized it had not been introduced at their trials, making it effectively new evidence that they say corroborates allegations that Erik was sexually abused by his father.
More new evidence emerged when Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, recently came forward saying he had been drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, the boys’ father, when he was a teen in the 1980s. Menudo was signed under RCA Records, where Jose Menendez was chief operating officer.
Rossello spoke about his abuse in the Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed," and provided a signed declaration to the brothers’ lawyers.
Had these two pieces of evidence been available during the brothers' trial, prosecutors would not have been able to argue that there was no corroboration of sexual abuse, or that their father Jose Menendez was not the “kind of man that would” abuse children, the petition argues.
While clemency might be another pathway to freedom for the brothers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week that he won't decide until incoming Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman reviews the case. Hochman, a Republican-turned-Independent who unseated the progressive Gascón on Dec. 2, has said he wants to carefully look at the evidence before making any decisions.
FILE - Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez sit with defense attorney Leslie Abramson, right, in the Municipal Court in the Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles, during a hearing, Nov. 26, 1990. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
FILE - This combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP, File)
