Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has rejected a recusal request from convicted murderers Erik and Lyle Menendez in their resentencing case.
In response, Hochman blasted the request as a “drastic and desperate step.”
Hochman argues that the Menendez brothers are trying to force a recusal because they’re unhappy with the district attorney’s overall stance on resentencing.
In a statement, Hochman said:
“In the opposition, the District Attorney’s Office has argued that in a ‘drastic and desperate step,’ the defense has decided to ‘sidestep the central issue of resentencing’ and present an argument ‘devoid of merit’ to recuse the entire District Attorney’s Office
“The entire defense argument over recusal boils down to the defense not being happy with the current District Attorney’s position on resentencing.
“While this desperate argument may work in a press interview, it fails in a court of law based on an adversarial system of justice.”
Attorney Mark Geragos, who represents the Menendez brothers, wrote in an April 25 motion that Hochman should recuse himself because of a “conflict of interest.”
In that filing, Geragos wrote that Hochman “has a very different view” on resentencing.
“In the prosecution’s view, there was no sexual abuse at all.
“Resentencing is not appropriate because although defendants have admitted the shooting for decades, they continue to maintain (as they have since trial) that they had been sexually abused since they were children,” Geragos wrote.
“Under the District Attorney’s view, there can be no rehabilitation unless defendants not only admit the shooting, but disclaim the corroborated history of sexual abuse which caused the first juries to reach verdicts evenly split between murder and manslaughter.”
“Because the record shows a conflict that renders it unlikely Erik and Lyle can receive a fair resentencing hearing, recusal is proper,” he added.
The Menendez brothers’ motion for Hochman’s recusal focuses on an attorney whom Hochman recently hired.
After former LA County District Attorney George Gascon announced he was considering a resentencing request from the Menendez brothers, 20 family members met with deputy district attorneys Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford.
They discussed their support for resentencing.
However, one family member objected to the resentencing and filed an amicus brief in opposition through his attorney, Kathleen Cady.
When Hochman won his election against Gascon, Geragos claimed that Theberge and Lunsford were intentionally reassigned.
He said they were reassigned because they were viewed as sympathetic to the Menendez brothers.
Geragos also claimed that Hochman hired Cady, the attorney who represented the only Menendez family member against resentencing, to lead the District Attorney’s Office of Victims’ Services.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic will preside over the hearing.
The Menendez brothers are currently serving a life sentence without parole after killing their parents, Mary “Kitty” Menendez and Jose Menendez, in 1989.
The brothers say they killed them after they were allegedly sexually abused for years by their father.
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