LOS ANGELES (AP) — Resentencing hearings for Erik and Lyle Menendez will move forward next week after a series of delays.
The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Defense attorneys ultimately withdrew their motion to remove LA prosecutors from the case, which the hearing was meant to discuss, and LA County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic rejected prosecutors’ arguments efforts to withdraw the resentencing petition.
Former LA County District Attorney George Gascón had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers in October by requesting their sentences be reduced to 50 years with the possibility of parole. His office said the case would've been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma, and the brothers' rehabilitation during their 30 years in prison.
But current district attorney Nathan Hochman reversed course and opposed the brothers' resentencing. Hochman has said the brothers have not taken full responsibility for their crimes because they have not admitted to lies told during their trials.
On Friday, Hochman tried to again ask the court to withdraw the resentencing petition saying new evidence supports that.
But Jesic disagreed and set May 13 and May 14 for the resentencing hearings.
“I don’t see anything new,” he said.
The Menendez family and lawyers have been forceful in their criticism of the way Hochman has handled the case. Hochman has said he has done nothing wrong and simply disagrees with the defense attorneys and their arguments as to why the brothers should be resentenced.
The brothers’ lead attorney Mark Geragos filed a petition to have Hochman removed from the case, but on Friday he withdrew his request and said he planned to lodge his complaints against Hochman at a future date.
During long-awaited resentencing hearings last month, attorneys engaged in a heated debate over whether material from risk assessments completed by the state parole board at the governor's order should be admissible in court. The hearings were delayed, and Geragos said then that he would move to recuse Hochman from the case.
In a motion filed April 25, Geragos argued that Hochman's bias against the brothers and mistreatment of the Menendez family posed a “genuine risk” that the brothers would not receive a fair hearing.
He pointed to Hochman's demotion of Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, the two deputy district attorneys who filed the original resentencing motion. Theberge and Lunsford have since filed lawsuits against Hochman alleging they were punished for their work on the Menendez case.
Hochman also hired Kathleen Cady, who represented Milton Andersen, the only Menendez family member who opposed the brothers' resentencing at the time, to head his Office of Victim Services. Andersen died in March.
Geragos said no one from the victim services office had ever reached out to the Menendez family to offer support. In mid-April, both Cady and Hochman were present at an organization's rally to condemn the Menendez brothers' resentencing, he said.
Finally, Geragos said the district attorney's office had violated Marsy's Law, which ensures victims in California are treated with fairness and respect.
Menendez cousin Tamara Goodell filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office in which she wrote Hochman used a “hostile, dismissive, and patronizing tone” that left the family “distressed and feeling humiliated.”
Hochman's motion said the defense had not presented any proof that hiring Cady, a seasoned prosecutor and attorney, prevented his office from treating the Menendez brothers fairly, and that the reassignments of Theberge and Lunsford were “internal staffing decisions."
Marsy's Law also does not give victims the right to seek the removal of a prosecutor, the motion said.
The Menendez brothers are still waiting for the full results of a state parole board risk assessment ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. The final hearing, scheduled for June 13, will influence whether Newsom grants the brothers clemency.
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