NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — “Judge Judy” Sheindlin on Monday sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly over a story she said falsely claimed she tried to help the Menendez brothers get a new trial after they were convicted of murder their parents.
The story was first published on InTouch Weekly’s website on April 10 under the headline “Inside Judge Judy’s quest to save the Menendez brothers nearly 35 years after their parents’ murder,” according to the lawsuit, filed in court in Collier County, FL.
A version of the story later appeared in the National Enquirer, a sister publication of InTouch Weekly, also owned by Accelerate360 Media. The Menendez murders in Beverly Hills, California in 1989 were a case of some tabloid notoriety.
Sheindlin said she had no say in the case. Her lawsuit speculated that the news media used statements in a Fox Nation docuseries by “Judi Ramos,” a woman identified as an alternate juror in the first Menendez trial, and falsely attributed them to the television judge.
There was no immediate comment from Accelerate360, whose attempt to sell the National Enquirer failed last year.
Sheindlin is not asking for a specific amount of damages, but made it clear that it wouldn’t come cheap.
“If you make up stories about me to make money for yourself, without regard to the truth or the reputation I have spent a lifetime building, it will cost you a lot,” she said in a statement. “Once you’ve done it multiple times, it’s unconscionable and expensive. It has to be expensive so that you stop.”
Sheindlin, who hosted the syndicated “Judge Judy” until 2021 and now hosts “Judy Justice,” has had run-ins with the Enquirer in the past.
In 2017, the newspaper retracted and apologized for stories that falsely claimed she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, depression and had cheated on her husband.
