LA County prosecutors who supported Menendez brothers' resentencing sue DA Hochman
A pair of Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed lawsuits claiming that District Attorney Nathan Hochman wrongfully demoted them for their support of the Menendez brothers' resentencing efforts.
Deputy District Attorneys Brock Lunsford and Nancy Theberge both filed their own complaints in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that they faced whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, defamation and California Labor Code violations for supporting the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who infamously shot and killed their parents in the 1980s.
They say that their support came under previous DA George Gascón.
Since taking office, Hochman has declared that he opposes the resentencing of the brothers, who are still serving life sentences for the murders. He says that they lack accountability and repeatedly lied about the events of the night the shooting happened.
That varies from the stance that Gascón took on the resentencing.
Theberge, who was transferred out of the DA's office and reassigned to the Alternate Public Defender's Office, said that resentencing the brothers was required by law and that not doing so and bringing a motion forward would be unlawful, the lawsuit says. It also notes that she was allegedly treated worse than Lunsford as he is a male and younger than her.
Upon taking office in November, Hochman demoted by Theberge and Lunsford almost immediately, according to the suit.
Lunsford, a veteran of more than two decades, was stripped of supervisory duties and reassigned to a calendar deputy position in a remote branch court, the lawsuit said.
Furthermore, the suit claims that Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, a co-defendant in the case, accused Theberge of dishonesty and for breaching her duty of candor to the court. The lawsuit says this is a "baseless and slanderous attack on her integrity."
Once Lunsford spoke out in defense of Theberge and reaffirmed the legality of the resentencing motion, a senior official allegedly ridiculed both plaintiffs publicly by calling them a "quisling," which the lawsuit says is the equivalent of comparing someone to a Nazi collaborator.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against the individual defendants.
