Menendez Hearing Revives Some Fascination With Case : Courts: As the brothers head toward a retrial, a share of the media spotlight is restored. Some ‘fans’ have emerged, wearing yellow ribbons of support.

The Menendez brothers murder case lumbered back into the spotlight Thursday at a hearing that produced little of substance, but served as a vivid reminder of the brothers’ star quality.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg had set the hearing to fix arrangements for a retrial in the celebrated case--when it would start, whether one or two juries would hear it and whether it would be held in Downtown Los Angeles or Van Nuys.

The hearing marked the brothers’ first appearance at the Van Nuys courthouse in months, and their presence delighted dozens of backers who came bearing flowers and cards and, in the apparent start of a new trend in the case, they sported yellow ribbons of support.

In the courtroom, hours of legal wrangling settled nothing. The hearing is due to resume today--and supporters promised that they would be back.

Lyle Menendez, 26, and Erik Menendez, 23, are facing a retrial on murder charges in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. At their first trial, which ended in January, separate juries deadlocked between murder and lesser manslaughter charges.

Prosecutors contend that the brothers killed out of hatred and greed. The brothers testified that they lashed out in self-defense after years of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

The last time Lyle and Erik Menendez had been in court before Weisberg was in July, and the judge’s tiny Van Nuys courtroom was packed Thursday with the brothers’ loyal supporters. Those wearing yellow ribbons, about half a dozen people, announced that they were a symbol for the sentiment “Free the Menendez Brothers.”

Before the hearing began, one woman waited patiently with bouquets of yellow and red roses for the defense, with cards for Lyle Menendez and for his brother’s lead defense attorney, Leslie Abramson.

Lyle Menendez, she said, was a “hero.” She added that she had driven to the hearing from San Diego and said of the bouquets: “I want to give a red one to Leslie. I think she’s an incredible warrior. She deserves 50 of them.”

Inside the courtroom, the brothers’ first appearance and the way they ambled to their seats was greeted with approving scrutiny.

Over the summer, Lyle Menendez let his hair grow past his collar and lost considerable weight. “He’s so slim!” one supporter exulted. Erik Menendez appeared in court in a new cranberry-colored plaid shirt, which drew many favorable remarks.

As court swung into session, Lyle Menendez flashed a broad smile at a woman who was beaming at him. She blew him back a kiss.

The hearing, however, immediately bogged down over a bid by Jill Lansing, Lyle Menendez’s lead lawyer in the first trial, to return to the case.

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With Lyle Menendez’s approval, Lansing had resigned shortly after the first trial ended, saying she wanted to spend more time with her young daughter. Deputy Public Defenders Bill Weiss and Terri Towery took over as the older brother’s lawyers.

In court papers filed in recent weeks, however, Lyle Menendez said that he wanted Lansing back, explaining that he believed Weiss and Towery were taking too long to get ready for the second trial.

If Lansing came back, said Ephraim Margolin, a prominent San Francisco attorney who argued Thursday on her behalf, she could be ready to begin a trial in 90 days. If Weiss and Towery stay on the case, Margolin said, the trial might not begin for another year.

“This case can be over before the public defenders would be ready to begin trying it,” Margolin said.

There is, however, a complication--the possibility that Lansing could be called as a witness against Lyle Menendez.

During the first trial, Lyle Menendez admitted that he once offered to bribe an ex-girlfriend, Jamie Pisarcik, urging her to lie for him by claiming that Jose Menendez “made a pass” at her.

It remains unclear what, if anything, Lansing knows about the attempted bribe. But the issue prompted several closed-door hearings during the first trial and Deputy Dist. Atty. David Conn, the lead prosecutor in the case, said Thursday that he would not hesitate to call her as a witness: “We are going to attack Ms. Lansing’s credibility, if the facts bear that out.”

In part because of that complication, Weisberg put off a ruling on whether Lansing is coming back.