The family of Eric and Lyle Menendez filed a complaint with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and allegedly violated the victim’s protection law after showing images of the graphic crime scene in court.
Justice for Eric and Lyle Coalition, a family-led initiative advocating for the release of Eric and Lyle Menendez, announced they had filed a formal complaint, accusing District Attorney Nathan Hochman of violating Mercy Act, which provides rights to victims of crime.
The family said the filing followed a “unexpected graphic display” of criminal photographs at a court hearing on April 11, when his brother’s aunt Terry Barratt was hospitalized.
“We never imagined we had to fight to be treated with respect and dignity, but last Friday our whole family was blind again,” the family wrote in a statement.
The brothers are resenting at a hearing scheduled for April 17th and 18th for the murder of parents Jose and Kitty Menendez, who shot them down at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Menendez Brothers’ aunt was hospitalized after DA shared a graphic photo in court: “There was no warning.”
Menendez brothers, left, Los Angeles Danathan Hochman (Getty Images)
The family’s allegations claim that the district attorney’s actions were “free and unnecessary display,” and did not serve a legitimate purpose other than “burning emotions to achieve the greatest ‘shock’ value.”
“Without warning, the District Attorney’s Office exhibited some horrifying graphic photos of the bodies of our loved ones, heads up, no compassion or humanity.
The allegations also accused the District Attorney’s Office of treating family members as “second-rate victims” due to policy discrepancies between Hochman and his family.
The resentment of the Menendez brothers ignores the cruelty of Kitty’s execution, the lawyer says: “It looked like a mob hit.”
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In an earlier statement shared with Fox News Digital, Hochman’s office said prosecutors were not intended to “provoke pain or pain” to those attending the hearing.
“To the extent that photo depictions of this conduct have confused any of the Menendez’s families present in court, we apologise for not giving advance warning that the conduct will be described in detail, not just through words but also through photographs of the crime scene,” Hochman’s office wrote.
Hochman’s office also explained that the Menendez brothers’ decision to file a habeas proof petition in 2023 and the 2024 demand for tolerance and responsiveness “certainly after more than 18 years of sleep, it will induce emotions for all involved.”
“We are not going to cause any pain or pain for the individuals attending court hearings,” Hochman’s office said. “We understand the nature of these heinous double murder evidence, but by design, these hearings are intended to be where truth is revealed, no matter how painful it is.
The family added that Ballard is in intensive care at a local hospital, shocked by the hearing Friday.
The Menendez Brothers’ Response: What will happen next?
The families and supporters of Eric and Lyle Menendez are standing outside the courthouse after hearing their brothers’ case in Los Angeles on Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP photo/Damiando Burgergen)
“Mercy laws are supposed to protect victims. All victims. Ironically, the person responsible for protecting our rights is the DA victim’s service coordinator,” the family said. “Kathy Kedy is in charge, but given her clear conflict of interest, the DA was supposed to appoint an unbiased coordinator for our family, but that’s not happening yet.”
Cady, a longtime victim rights lawyer and current director of the victim, has sued LA District Attorney George Gascon multiple times for violating Marsy’s law.
She previously represented Milton Andersen, the uncle of the Menendez brothers.
“It means that Milton Andersen is filling in the abuse claims, they believe they are wrong and he believes that Correct verdict Cady previously told Fox News Digital.
“Kathy Cady, one of California’s most important victims, previously represented one of Menendez’s family,” Hochman’s office said in a statement Tuesday. “In January 2025, Caddy returned to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office as director of the Victim Services Department.
“After District Attorney Nathan Hochman took office on December 3, 2024, Caddy has been covered up from participation and contact with the Menendez case throughout the present, and he therefore played no role in any of the Menendez family claims.”
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An outdated photo of the Menendez family appears on screen on June 2, 2024 at the Crimicon 2024 panel in Nashville, Tennessee. Brothers Lyle and Eric were convicted in 1989 for fatally shooting and killing both their parents. (Michael Lewis/Fox News Digital)
Andersen, through his lawyer, said he rejected the defense claims about child abuse and agreed to the prosecutor at the trial who showed that the brothers spent $700,000 in the wake of their parents’ death.
Menendez’s brothers and their supporters say they were unfairly convicted of being taken prisoner in 1996 for killing two parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. Beverly Hills Home in 1989.
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Lyle and Eric Menendez are wearing prison jumpsuits at a murder trial in Los Angeles. (Tedsaw/Sigma via Getty Images)
Both Lyle and Eric Menendez have since claimed their father has been sexually abusing them in documentaries and social media. Different stories of murder More than the stories their lawyers told in the 1990s.
Previously Hochman He told ABC News If both brothers “for the first time in over 30 years, they are sincerely and explicitly acknowledging the full scope of their criminal conduct and all the lies they have spoken about it,” he would consider resenting.”
He said in a statement last week that the brothers “stubbornly chose to lurk in a bunker of lies, deceit and denials over 30.”
Look at Fox Nation: Brothers Menendez: Are they victims or villains?
On November 26, 1990, Lyle and Eric Menendez sit on the left with Beverly Hills City Court attorney Leslie Abramson. (AP Photo/Nick UT)
The district attorney wrote in his allegations that he believed the Menendez brothers “repeated repeatedly about the case, their parents and their interactions with their witnesses.”
Their first trial ended with cheating when the ju judges failed to agree with their fate. After the second trial in the mid-1990s Suspicion of sexual abuse Excluded, the ju judge agreed to the prosecutor that their motive was greedy.
If a judge decides to resent Menendez’s brothers, it will then be up to the state’s parole board to consider their release.
They were under 26 years old at the time of the murder, so if they sentenced a new 50-year sentence under current California law, they would be immediately subject to a parole hearing.
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They will already be appearing before the board of directors as part of a comprehensive risk assessment report that is considering the siblings’ generous demands as part of a comprehensive risk assessment report ordered by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We have lost Jose and Kitty, and we live with that grief every day. But we now know the years of suffering and trauma that Eric and Lyle experienced at something that none of us fully understood at the time. It also does not mean that he has stopped mourning. That means we have chosen to keep the space for both loss and forgiveness.
“Life is not black and white. It’s messy, painful and complicated. But it doesn’t mean that we have stopped being victims, believing in red.
