Nathan Hochman, Lyle Menendez, Erik Menendez. Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty; AP Photo/Nick Ut, File

​​The new Los Angeles County District Attorney is speaking out about the Menendez brothers and the notion that the siblings, who claimed they endured years of sex abuse, didn’t get a fair trial.

“It’s a bit simplistic to say that society back in the ’90s, didn’t recognize sexual abuse of young boys or men,” newly-elected district attorney Nathan Hochman told Deadline. “I think it did. I think there’s plenty of cases that this office and offices across the state were bringing to the courts.”

According to Hochman, Mark Geragos, the post-conviction attorney for the brothers, “has been very happy to repeat that mantra, and the media has repeated Mr. Geragos’ mantra. What I’m saying is that whether or not the mantra is actually true, is that no one’s actually looked, that I’m aware, to see what types of cases, in the volume of cases that were brought where the victims were young boys or young men.

“They make it seem like it never happened. I know for a fact it did.”

The first Menendez brothers trial for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents Jose and Kitty resulted in a hung jury. In 1996, after a second trial, Lyle and Erik, who do not dispute that they shot their parents, but instead claimed that the killings were self-defense after years of abuse by Jose, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Erik and Lyle Menendez.California Dept. of Corrections via AP

Hochman said there is an assumption that during the second trial that the sexual abuse allegations were not raised. But he said that Erik testified for seven days about the alleged abuse.

“Probably, if I had to guess, close to 40 hours of testimony where he went into great detail, as he did in the first trial,” Hochman said. “Incident by incident by incident, between the ages, I think of about 6 to 18 of what his father had done to him… So, the notion, again, the mantra, that sexual abuse wasn’t explored in the second trial that the judge kept out all the evidence actually isn’t true.”

Erik and Lyle Menendez at trial.VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty

“I’ve been doing this for 34 years, I’ve seen it,” he said. “The media is in search of simple narratives, conflicting narratives, and so it adopted the Geragos narrative,” he said. “Which was very smart, very creative. It’s basically that the trial was all about sexual abuse, that their response was because of sexual abuse. It’s that a conviction was only attained because the evidence of sexual abuse didn’t occur in the second trial, but occurred in the first trial, and therefore that the underlying conviction is wrong and should be fixed.”

“Knowing the Geragos narrative is absolutely wrong, the issues that we’ll be looking at for the trial will be whether or not these two young men faced an immediate threat to their life? Why they got to that point? How they got to the point is irrelevant for the trial. For the convictions, maybe not irrelevant,” he added.

Hochman said he now has access to the confidential files as well as the court transcripts. “We’re looking through the testimony, as opposed to the highlights of testimony that people have been happy to share.”

In May 2023, attorneys for the brothers filed a petition with Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing new evidence in the case.

In the Habeas Corpus petition, attorneys pointed to sexual abuse allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo against Jose, who he claimed raped him in the 1980s.

The attorneys also cite a newly discovered letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano describing his father’s alleged sexual abuse months before the murders.

In October, former district attorney George Gascón recommended resentencing for the brothers, citing their years of good work while in prison.

Referencing his review of the case, Hochman said, “We’re going to go through all that evidence and weigh all the factors and ultimately come to the judge and say, to the judge, here’s all the records. Here are your options. And make sure that whatever decision is ultimately made is the best-informed decision possible.”

A hearing for potential resentencing is scheduled for Jan. 30.