After puttin’ in a ton of years behind bars for brutally killin’ their parents, the waitin’ game is finally comin’ to an end for brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez as they try to snag their freedom. There’s been a whole lotta back and forth between the current and former Los Angeles County district attorney, causin’ a bunch of delays in recent months, but L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic dropped the bomb on Friday that the brothers’ resentencing hearing is gonna go down on Tuesday. The hearing is s’posed to last two days at the Van Nuys Courthouse.
The brothers got slapped with a murder conviction with special circumstances for blastin’ their parents, Jose and Kitty, with a shotgun back in 1989 at their Beverly Hills crib. Erik, who was just 18 at the time, spilled the beans about the killings durin’ a chat with his therapist, and both brothers ended up gettin’ sent up the river for life without the chance of parole. Erik and Lyle claimed that their pops sexually abused ’em and posed a threat to their lives, but the prosecutors argued that they offed their folks to get their hands on their multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Since October, when then-Dist. Atty. George Gascón asked a judge to make ’em eligible for parole, the brothers have been holdin’ out hope for their day in court. Resentencin’ could open the door for parole under the state’s youthful offender law since they were under 26 when they carried out the murders. Gascón pointed to the brothers’ efforts in creatin’ rehab programs in the slammer, their low-risk ratings from corrections honchos, and possible new dirt about their old man’s alleged abusive ways as reasons to cut ’em loose.
But when Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman beat Gascón in November, he promised to take another look at the case. In March, he did a 180 and said he wasn’t down with resentencin’, claimin’ that the brothers hadn’t really owned up to their crimes and were still fibbin’ about bein’ scared their parents might off ’em to hide Jose’s alleged abuse. Hochman tried to get Jesic to ignore Gascón’s move and only consider filings from his own tenure, but the judge shot that down last month, sayin’ there wasn’t anything groundbreakin’ in those filings.
Hochman, who showed up in court with the line prosecutors on the case, once again asked Jesic to chuck Gascón’s petition on Friday. This time around, he said info in a risk-assessment report cooked up by the parole board under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s watch — who’s thinkin’ about grantin’ the brothers clemency — woulda been a game-changer for Gascón. The report bumped up the brothers’ risk level from “low” to “moderate” and also dished that Erik got busted with a cellphone, which is a no-no in the big house, in November. That phone supposedly showed that Erik’s still actin’ all high and mighty, flashin’ “narcissistic and antisocial traits,” according to Hochman.
Hochman also dropped the bomb that Lyle had been usin’ an illegal cellphone this year and copped to helpin’ out another con with tax fraud 15 years ago and buyin’ drugs in the slammer. The D.A. claimed these incidents proved the brothers were keepin’ up their shady ways behind bars. Jesic shut down Hochman’s plea once again, sayin’ the report would need to have somethin’ so jaw-droppin’ that Gascón woulda rethought his stance, like proof that the brothers joined a notorious prison gang, such as the Mexican Mafia.
A group of relatives rootin’ for Erik and Lyle’s release have been goin’ head to head with Hochman over the case lately, with some of the tension leadin’ to a move filed by defense lawyer Mark Geragos last month to kick Hochman and his prosecutors off the case. The fam has accused Hochman of bein’ biased against the brothers and bein’ “hostile, dismissive, and patronizing” toward ’em in a meetin’ earlier this year. Geragos also claims Hochman stirred the pot by bringin’ on Kathy Cady — a former prosecutor and victims rights lawyer who once repped the only Menendez relative against their release — as the head of his victims services bureau. Hochman says Cady’s hands-off from the case, but the fam ain’t buyin’ it.
The fam’s also questioned Hochman’s move to transfer the two prosecutors who first filed the motion to resentence the brothers. Those lawyers, Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, have slapped Hochman with a lawsuit for gettin’ back at ’em. Hochman’s denied any bias and says he’s just followin’ the rules. Geragos ended up pullin’ his motion to disqualify on Friday since it woulda stalled the resentencin’ hearing. An attorney for the fam supportin’ the brothers, Bryan Freedman, kept on raggin’ on the D.A. in court on Friday.
Freedman accused Hochman of blowin’ “hundreds of thousands of dollars” by hirin’ a PR guru to trash the Menendez crew durin’ his campaign last year. While Hochman did make noise about the Menendez case durin’ the campaign — even callin’ out Gascón for tryin’ to re-sentence the brothers for political gain — it only came up in the final stretch of the race. LAG Strategy, the PR firm that handled Hochman’s comms durin’ his bid, had been in the mix for nearly a year by then.
In a heated chat outside the courthouse, Hochman accused the Menendez camp of spreadin’ lies and hopin’ it would stick in the media. “Shame on them,” he said.
