Los Angeles prosecutors claim DA targeted them for supporting Menendez brothers' resentencing

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Two veteran Los Angeles County prosecutors filed lawsuits on Monday, accusing Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman and the county of wrongfully demoting them for supporting the resentencing of the Menendez brothers while former District Attorney George Gascón still led the office.

The prosecutors, Deputy District Attorneys Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford, claim they were demoted to junior positions after they supported resentencing for Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

While Gascón supported the resentencing motion, Hochman has opposed it, citing what he calls the brothers’ continued dishonesty and refusal to take responsibility. The resentencing that Gascon supported would have removed the life without parole element of the brothers’ sentence, changing it to 50 years to life in prison.

Gascón’s decision to support resentencing was influenced by new evidence supporting the brothers’ claims of enduring physical and sexual abuse by their father, José Menendez, including a 1988 letter from Erik Menendez to his cousin detailing ongoing abuse.

Theberge claims she believed state law required the resentencing motion and that failing to file it would have been unlawful. But after Hochman was elected in November, he quickly removed both Theberge and Lunsford from the case and demoted them, according to Theberge and Lunsford.

“Theberge and Lunsford were not only demoted but also subjected to a campaign of retaliation, harassment, and reputational harm. Supervisors in the new administration accused Theberge of dishonesty and breaching her duty of candor to the court, a baseless and slanderous attack on her integrity,” Theberge said in her complaint.

Theberge and Lunsford each filed separate complaints in Los Angeles Superior Court. Theberge and Lunsford claim whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment, defamation, emotional distress and violations of California labor laws.

Theberge, who led a unit within the district attorney’s office, was reassigned to the Alternate Public Defender’s Office — a move she characterizes as retaliatory in her lawsuit. Lunsford, a 25-year veteran, was stripped of his supervisory role and reassigned to a lower-level position in a remote court.

The lawsuit also names Deputy District Attorney John Lewin as a defendant. After Lunsford publicly defended Theberge and the legality of the resentencing motion, the two attorneys say Lewin mocked them both, referring to them as “quislings” — a slur comparing them to Nazi collaborators.

Theberge claims she faced harsher treatment than Lunsford, who is male and younger and was allowed to remain within the district attorney’s office.

Both prosecutors are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

“Nancy and Brock followed the law and paid for it with their careers,” Justin Shegerian, an attorney for Theberge and Lunsford, said in a statement. “Their resentencing motion was grounded in fact, supported by the law, and filed with integrity.”

Hochman is set to ask a judge on Friday to withdraw the resentencing request. He told NBC Los Angeles on Monday that the Menendez brothers should go through California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office if they seek resentencing because Newsom does not have the same legal restraints that Hochman or a court does.

The Menendez brothers’ case received massive media attention because of the brutality of the murders. The brothers used shotguns to shoot their parents multiple times — their father, José, a Hollywood executive, was shot point-blank in the head, and their mother, Kitty, was chased down and shot while crawling on the floor.

After the murders, the brothers went on lavish spending sprees, raising suspicion. During their televised trial, the brothers claimed they killed their parents after enduring intolerable physical and sexual abuse from their father for years.