The pair, who are serving a life sentence for the 1989 shotgun killings of their parents, are seeking a change in their term that could allow them to be released on parole.
But a hearing that was scheduled for Thursday degenerated into a squabble over a risk assessment document on the brothers prepared by the parole board at the request of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is weighing their clemency bid.
Hours before the court hearing, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who opposes the resentencing effort, said his office needed time to review that document.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, dismissed the move as a desperate bid to needlessly delay proceedings, and said he believed Hochman was hostile and should be removed from the case.
“We are filing a motion to recuse the district attorney,” Geragos told reporters.
“The family does not want to go through this charade anymore with the DA… who made up his mind and did no hard work in terms of his position.”
LA County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said he would hold a new hearing on May 9 to determine if the report was relevant to the bid for resentencing.
The Los Angeles Times reported Newsom’s office as saying the full report would not be available until June.
“Our office notified Judge Jesic of the status of this report, which is not a stand-alone risk assessment, and offered to share it with the court should he request it,” Newsom’s office said, according to the paper.
Thursday’s developments are the latest in a decades-long saga that has gripped America, and which gained currency for a new generation of TV viewers when Netflix released “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” last year.
Blockbuster trials in the 1990s heard how the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez in their luxury Beverly Hills home, in what prosecutors said was a cynical attempt to get their hands on a large family fortune.
The men hit Jose Menedez five times with shotguns, including in the kneecaps.
Kitty Menedez died from a shotgun blast in her last desperate bid to crawl away from her killers.
The brothers initially blamed the deaths on a mafia hit, but would change their story several times over the coming months.
Erik, then 18, confessed to the murders in a session with his therapist, and the brothers ultimately claimed they had acted in self defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of a tyrannical father.
Supporters say Erik Menendez, now 54, and Lyle Menendez, now 57, are model prisoners who are reformed, and deserving of a second chance.
Hochman claims they continue to cling to untruths and have never fully accepted their guilt.
He says this makes them ineligible for parole. (AFP)
