Two public prosecutors plan to sue the Los Angeles District Lawyer’s Workplace claiming they had been demoted and disparaged for calling for the killer Menendez brothers to be let out.
On Monday, district attorneys Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford filed court docket papers towards LA County for retaliation, defamation and discrimination, arguing that newly-elected DA Nathan Hochman demoted them after they formally really useful Lyle and Erik Menendez be resentenced.
The filings are seen as a precursor to a lawsuit.
The pair allege Deputy District Lawyer John Lewin — who helped prosecute rap star A$AP Rocky — ruined their reputations by likening them each to Nazi collaborators and publicly accusing Theberge of promoting her integrity for “a few extra nickels.”
“Their careers have been totally derailed,” Justin Shegerian, lawyer for the 2 prosecutors, informed The Submit.
In October, they really useful resentencing the Menendez brothers — whereas then-District Lawyer George Gascón, a Democrat, was weighing what to do with the case — who had been convicted of the 1989 shotgun slaying of their rich dad and mom.
Hochman — a Republican turned unbiased — unseated Gascón the next month by taking a hardline stance and vowing to undo a lot of his predecessor’s soft-on-crime insurance policies.
Shortly after, Lunsford, who had been with the DA’s workplace for 25 years, was shunted right into a calendar deputy function at a smaller courthouse. Theberge, regardless of glowing efficiency evaluations, was transferred again to her outdated job on the public defender’s workplace, the grievance claims.
“Both of these individuals were the only names that appeared on the motion of resentencing, and they were the two that were demoted, sent off to Siberia, if you will,” Shegerian stated.
The pair additionally allege that Lewin, the deputy DA, bashed them in interviews and on social media, referring to them as “quislings” — a nickname for Nazi collaborators throughout World Battle II — and accusing Theberge of promoting “her soul.”
The District Lawyer’s Workplace didn’t instantly reply to The Submit’s request for remark.
The forthcoming litigation is the most recent authorized skirmish within the high-profile battle over the destiny of the polarizing brothers — after a success Netflix documentary and tv sequence catapulted them again into the highlight.
Gascón had beforehand really useful that the court docket cut back their costs from homicide to manslaughter when new proof surfaced that the brothers had been sexually abused by their father.
And for a time, it appeared just like the pair could be out of jail in time for Christmas.
However Gascón’s stinging defeat on the polls successfully hit the reset button on the case — with Hochman saying he would want to conduct a full evaluate earlier than deciding what to do.
The case was additional stalled following the current wildfires in Los Angeles, pushing again a scheduled court docket listening to from January to late March.
