By FRED SHUSTER
A re-sentencing hearing set Thursday for Erik and Lyle Menendez in Van Nuys has been postponed indefinitely, with a May 9 motions hearing scheduled to discuss both the admissibility of a state parole board risk-assessment report and a proposed defense motion seeking to recuse the District Attorney’s Office from the case.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic initially was agreeable to starting the re-sentencing hearing Thursday, but issues arose that prompted him to delay the hearing for the time being. No new dates for a re-sentencing hearing were set, and a second day of the hearing initially set for Friday was canceled.
The Menendez brothers, jailed for life for the 1989 murders of their parents in Beverly Hills, watched via Zoom from the San Diego prison where they are incarcerated but made no statements.
The Van Nuys courtroom was crowded with Menendez family members, some of whom planned to testify of the brothers’ successful rehabilitation during more than 35 years behind bars if the hearing had gone forward.
Instead, much of the morning was taken up with discussion of the admissibility of a recently completed psychological assessment of the brothers and whether they posed a danger to the community if released. Defense attorney Mark Geragos argued for the assessment to be kept out of the re-sentencing hearing, while prosecutor Habib Balian described the report as an essential piece of the puzzle needed by the judge to make a decision on the matter.
The issue will be discussed at the motions hearing next month, the judge said.
Another issue was the prosecution’s use of a graphic crime scene photo displayed at a hearing last Friday.
Geragos complained that use of the photo without warning to Menendez family members caused trauma and resulted in an already ailing elderly aunt of Lyle and Erik Menendez being taken to a hospital.
The judge ordered that if any other graphic photos were to be used, defense attorneys should be…
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