Menendez brothers' family accuses DA of violating victim protection law after showing graphic photo in court
Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez have filed a complaint against the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, claiming it violated a victim's protection rights law after showing graphic crime scene images in court.
The Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition, a family-led initiative advocating for the release of Erik and Lyle Menendez, announced that it has filed a formal complaint, accusing District Attorney Nathan Hochman's office of violating Marsy’s Law, which provides rights to crime victims.
The family said the filing follows the DA’s "unexpected and graphic display" of crime-scene photographs at an April 11 court hearing that led to the brothers' aunt, Terry Baralt, being hospitalized.
"We never imagined we would have to fight to be treated with respect and dignity. But last Friday, our entire family was once again blindsided," the family wrote in a statement.
The brothers have resentencing hearings scheduled for April 17 and 18 in the killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, whom they gunned down in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
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The family's motion alleges that the district attorney's actions were "gratuitous and needlessly displayed" and served no legitimate purpose other than to "inflame emotions to achieve maximum 'shock' value."
"Without warning, the District Attorney’s Office displayed gruesome, graphic photos of our loved ones’ bodies. No heads-up, no compassion, no humanity. Our entire family was re-traumatized first by the graphic display and again, when Terry was hospitalized shortly after."
The motion also accused the district attorney's office of treating family members as "second-class victims" due to a policy disagreement between Hochman and the family.
Read the complaint:
In a previous statement shared with Fox News Digital, Hochman's office said prosecutors did not intend to "cause distress or pain" to those in attendance at the hearing.
"To the extent that the photographic depiction of this conduct upset any of the Menendez family members present in court, we apologize for not giving prior warning that the conduct would be described in detail not only in words but also through a crime scene photo," Hochman's office wrote.
Hochman's office also explained that the Menendez brothers’ decision to file a habeas petition in 2023 and a request for clemency and resentencing in 2024 was "certainly going to trigger emotions for all those concerned in a case after staying dormant for over 18 years."
"We never intend to cause distress or pain to individuals who attend a court hearing," Hochman's office said. "We understand the nature of the evidence of these heinous double murders was deeply emotional. However, by design, these hearings are intended to be a place where the truth, no matter how painful, is brought to light. That truth starts with the abject brutality and premeditation of the murders themselves."
The family added that Baralt remains in intensive care at a local hospital following the shock from Friday's hearing.
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"Marsy’s Law is supposed to protect victims, ALL victims. Ironically, the person responsible for ensuring our rights are protected is the DA’s victim’s services coordinator," the family said. "Kathy Cady is the one responsible, however given her clear conflict of interest, the DA was supposed to appoint a non-biased coordinator for our family, which has yet to happen."
Cady, a longtime victims' rights lawyer and current director of victims' services, sued former LA District Attorney George Gascon multiple times for violating Marsy's Law.
She also previously represented the Menendez brothers' uncle, Milton Andersen, who was the only relative who vocally opposed their release until he died last month.
"It’s Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the claims of molestation were made up, and they were false, and he believes that the correct verdict was issued by the jury and the correct sentence was also committed," Cady previously told Fox News Digital.
"Kathy Cady, one of the foremost victim advocates in California, formerly represented one of the Menendez family members," Hochman's office said in a statement Tuesday. "In January 2025, Ms. Cady returned to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office as the Director of the Bureau of Victim Services.
"Once District Attorney Nathan Hochman assumed office on December 3, 2024, Ms. Cady has been walled off from any participation or contact with the Menendez case – through the present. Accordingly, Ms. Cady played no role at all in any of the Menendez family’s allegations."
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Andersen, through his attorney, had said he rejected the defense claims about child abuse and agreed with trial prosecutors, who showed the brothers went on a $700,000 spending spree in the wake of their parents' deaths.
The Menendez brothers and their supporters have been pushing for a resentencing hearing, saying the brothers were unfairly convicted to life in prison in 1996 for murdering their two parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
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Both Lyle and Erik Menendez have since come forward in documentaries and on social media claiming their father sexually abused them, offering a different narrative of the killings than the story their attorneys told in the 1990s.
Hochman previously told ABC News that he would consider resentencing if both brothers "sincerely and unequivocally admit, for the first time in over 30 years, the full range of their criminal activity and all the lies that they have told about it."
He said in a statement last week that the brothers "have chosen to stubbornly remain hunkered down in their over 30-year-old bunker of lies, deceit, and denials."
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The district attorney wrote in his motion that he believes the Menendez brothers "have repeatedly lied about the case, their parents, and their interactions with witnesses."
Their first trial ended in a mistrial, when jurors couldn't agree on their fate. After a second trial in the mid-1990s, in which some of their evidence about the alleged sexual abuse was excluded, jurors agreed with prosecutors that their motive was greed.
If the judge decides to resentence the Menendez brothers, it will then be up to the state parole board to consider their release.
Because they were under 26 years old at the time of the murders, under current California law, new sentences of 50 years to life would immediately make them eligible for a parole hearing.
They are already scheduled to appear before the board on June 13 as part of a comprehensive risk assessment report ordered by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considering the brothers’ clemency request – a separate potential path out of prison.
"We lost José and Kitty, and we live with that grief every single day. But we also now know the years of suffering and trauma that Erik and Lyle went through that none of us fully understood at the time," the family explained. "That doesn’t mean that we condone their behavior, it doesn’t mean that Erik and Lyle don’t live with regret every single day, that they haven’t apologized to all of us – having spent the last 35 years becoming better men worthy of a second chance at life. It also doesn’t mean that we’ve stopped mourning. It means we’ve chosen to hold space for both loss and forgiveness.
"Life is not black and white. It is messy and painful and complicated. But believing in redemption doesn’t mean we’ve stopped being victims. It doesn’t mean we should be treated with contempt."