LOS ANGELES, CA — New Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, since Dec. 11, Variety reported, has removed two prosecutors from the “highly-prolific” Menendez Brothers case from the office’s post-conviction unit.
“The resentencing hearing was originally scheduled for (last) Wednesday,” Variety wrote, but “at a Nov. 25 status hearing, Judge Michael Jesic postponed it until late January ‘out of respect to the new administration’ —giving both Hochman and the judge time to get up to speed on the voluminous case file.”
Judge Michael Jesic claimed, “I want him to be able to have his say.”
According to Variety, Hochman accused previous DA George Gascón of being “publicity-seeking” when handling this case.
Yet, Gascón was elected in 2020 as a criminal justice reformer and has shown multiple occasions of efforts for long-term changes, which included creating a new unit to reevaluate prisoners’ sentences, according to Gascón’s office.
Records from Gascón’s administration and his most recent press release also showed that he secured about 300 resentencings during his term.
“(Hochman) has not said whether he will stand by the request or seek to withdraw it,” wrote Gene Maddaus from Variety. “But the personnel moves suggest a clean break from the previous administration’s approach.”
Hochman also argued during the campaign that Gascón was “too soft on crime,” and has “reportedly been seeking to remove Gascón appointees who previously worked in the public defender’s office,” including the deputy-in-charge of the Menendez case, said Variety.
Lyle and Erik Menendez have served 34 years of their sentences of life without parole for the 1984 murders of their parents, according to court records.
The two DAs originally in charge of the Menendez case were Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, according to an Oct. 24 filing. The filing revealed “overwhelming” evidence of rehabilitation.
At the time of the killings, the file reiterated that Lyle Menendez was 21 years old and a student at Princeton University while Erik Menendez was 18 years old and preparing to attend UCLA in the fall.
“Erik Menendez testified at trial that he had been physically and sexually abused by his father Jose Menendez between the ages of six and 18,” read the file’s brief statement of facts.
“Erik Menendez testified he loved his parents but killed them because they were going to kill him after he had disclosed to his brother Lyle Menendez that his father had been sexually abusing him.”
The case’s facts, continued the Variety story, noted Erik Menendez told Lyle Menendez “about the molestation five days before the killings and told him it had been ongoing for the past 12 years.”
The Menendez case was argued by Theberge and Lunsford for a resentencing of 50 years to life, which would “make them immediately eligible for parole,” reported Variety.
“We now understand that public safety is not best achieved through overly harsh punishments that ignore rehabilitation,” the deputies wrote in the filing, adding that the brothers “have transformed and taken advantage of meaningful opportunities to mature, move beyond criminal thinking, repent, and become productive community members.”
The Menendez brothers’ lawyer Mark Geragos had filed a habeas corpus petition in May 2023, arguing that “new evidence has come to light that supports the abuse claims and warrants a new trial,” according to Variety.
Geragos in the petition revealed the brothers’ father had a history of molesting and raping youth that was hidden from the jury during the first held trial.
“Had jurors seen the letter Erik Menendez wrote to Andy Cano (cousin to the Menendez brothers), and learned that Jose Menendez anally raped and orally copulated a 13- or 14-year-old boy in 1984, the prosecutor would not have been able to argue that ‘the abuse never happened,’ ‘[t]here is no corroboration of sexual abuse,’ Jose Menendez was not the ‘kind of man that would’ abuse children,” Geragos stated in the petition.
The Los Angeles Deputy Attorney Office was supposed to respond to Geragos’s request by Nov. 26, over a year after the filing, but Variety noted it asked “on that date to extend the deadline to Dec. 20.”
Variety reported that public opinion has also swayed in the Menendez brothers’ favor since the release of the Netflix series “Monsters” in Sept. of 2024, marking tangible support for the resentencing efforts.
However, Theberge, who had served under Gascón, has been “told she will be involuntarily transferred to the office of the Alternate Public Defender, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation,” said Variety.
“Lunsford has also been moved out of the D.A.’s post-conviction unit, though he remains with the D.A.’s office, according to sources,” Variety wrote.
“A D.A. spokeswoman said on Friday that Antonio Aguilar would be the new deputy in charge of the resentencing unit and the post-conviction and discovery division,” continued Variety, adding said that it “was not true,” though Variety noted Aguilar’s name is listed “in that role on a roster of new appointments.”
The DA office also said that “no changes had been made in the assignments” on the Menendez case, added Variety, adding the DA office spokeswoman said, “The office declines comment on personnel matters.”
Currently, the Menendez brothers are also seeking clemency from Gov. Gavin Newsom, though “Newsom has said he will hold off on that request in deference to Hochman,” according to Variety.
After taking office in Dec. 2024, Hochman rescinded many of Gascón’s directives, “freeing up prosecutors to file enhancements and make other more aggressive charging decisions,” said Gene Maddaus in Variety.
“He did not rescind Gascón’s resentencing policy, which set out circumstances in which the D.A. would ask judges to modify sentences,” which explained why a blanket repeal was “impractical” and why the office is taking a “more nuanced” look at the issue, Variety wrote.
And yet, Variety writes, this legal “question” of whether or not the Menendez brothers were victims of sexual abuse in the courts’ eyes has always been the elephant in the room, especially when the prosecutor in one their trials spoke against them in the closing argument.
“We do not execute child molesters in California… And these (accused) cannot execute them either. Vigilantism is something we cannot tolerate because then what happens? What if you decide your neighbor is a child molester and you go kill your neighbor?” the prosecution stated on the 1993 court transcript.
