EXCLUSIVE: Up on the highest ground of downtown’s Hall of Justice, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s workplace has little of the grandeur that the remainder of the almost 100-year-old ornate constructing itself would counsel, because the newly sworn-in Nathan Hochman himself factors out.
“I questioned why all of the home windows had been going through upwards, why they’d what seemed like bars on them,” the previous U.S. Assistant Attorney General says. “I found this was the County jail earlier than the constructing reopened in 2015,” Hochman provides with fun, waving his arms round his personal largely naked workplace not removed from the place now useless Charles Manson and nonetheless residing Sirhan Sirhan had been as soon as incarcerated.
Just a number of days into his time period, after a landslide victory over one-termer George Gascón with help from Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Oscar nominated documentarian Rory Kennedy, ex-Republican Hochman makes no secret of the actual fact he’s attempting to settle in rapidly, figuratively and actually. Yet, in a sprawling county bigger and with a higher inhabitants than most states, irrespective of how briskly he goes, time shouldn’t be one thing Hochman has in abundance as a thirst for change, a necessity for security, and anger at incumbents was what turned so many Angelenos in opposition to Gascón.
Among one of many issues ticking away in Hochman’s inbox is the revived case of the Menendez brothers.
Convicted of first-degree homicide in a second trial in 1996, and sentenced to life with out parole, the now middle-aged brothers’ case was introduced again into the courts by Gascón earlier this 12 months as new-ish proof of sexual abuse by their father turned recognized. In one of the media pushed cities on the planet, the siblings’ 1989 homicide of their dad and mom within the household’s Beverly Hills dwelling was additionally again within the highlight over the previous 12 months by well-watched exhibits on Peacock and Netflix.
In the dying days of his regime, with a hopeful eye on the polls, Gascón beneficial resentencing and even backed a plea for clemency for the brothers earlier than Gov. Gavin Newsom.
With now D.A. Hochman diving into the particulars of the case, that’s now all on maintain till a January 30 listening to for 54-year-old Erik and 56-year-old Lyle Menendez. A listening to that possible received’t see the duo free instantly, however might definitely see the 2 out of jail within the subsequent 12 months.
At the identical time because the Menendez case captures headlines and social media posts, Hochman faces different high-profile circumstances, a depleted employees, getting his personal staff in place, and Donald Trump’s return to the White House with guarantees of mass deportations. Sitting within the informal convention space of his private workplace, the brand new D.A. mentioned all this with me, in addition to challenges he faces inside and outdoors the constructing and the county.
DEADLINE: How has the primary week been when it comes to studying the job and seeing what the total obligations of the job are?
NATHAN HOCHMAN: You know, I view the primary week like I’ve used the primary day, and even the anticipation the primary day as a possibility of a lifetime, I’ll get an opportunity, and I’ve been now exploring it at its fullest extent, of working with a few of the most numerous and gifted attorneys within the authorized occupation, not simply as prosecutors.
Part of that’s I shall be visiting the visiting the employees, visiting the prosecutors within the 15 completely different workplaces now we have. I’ll be speaking with legislation enforcement, ultimately speaking with probation officers, speaking to judges, even speaking with public defenders and alternate public defenders. Look, the system is damaged. The system I got here into simply wasn’t working. This workplace wasn’t working.
DEADLINE: How so?
HOCHMAN: It misplaced 20% of its workforce in recent times. People who simply stopped believing in that the DA was on mission, they usually’d simply as quickly depart or discover another jobs or retire. And now it’s a way of, I don’t know if it’s the phrase aid, as a lot because it’s hope. You know, I discover a sense of vitality after I go speak to those who they only fired as much as get going with the job.
Newly sworn in L.A D.A. Nathan Hochman speaks exterior of the Hall of Justice on December 3, 2024.
DEADLINE: I hear you with that, however that’s inside baseball to most. Regardless of the place one stands on the political spectrum, there are lots of people in LA County who can’t get any actual response from a 911 name, who see justice as being very selective. And to be trustworthy, the extremes have overwhelmed actual dialogue, they usually really feel they’ve been deserted…
HOCHMAN: Unfortunately, it’s not a shock that individuals really feel that approach, as a result of the sensation relies in actuality.
DEADLINE: Certainly, individuals whose households have suffered tragic or deadly penalties from crime, like Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, one in every of your largest supporters within the marketing campaign, know that feeling strongly. Then what do you, and I imply you, what do you do about that?
HOCHMAN: What I say to that’s that a part of hanging the correct stability is having the correct set of procedures and the correct D.A in place.
DEADLINE: Which is what?
HOCHMAN: If a DA got here in and mentioned, as a substitute of decarceration, we’re now going to emphasise mass incarceration once more, If they mentioned, we need to ship a message to the prison ingredient that we’re simply going to place them in jail, actually, till we get the courts telling us we put too many individuals in jail. I’m telling you I reject that, I reject each extremes. I reject excessive insurance policies. I come down within the center. I name it the arduous work center, or the arduous center, as a result of it requires you to do the work. Blanket insurance policies are inherently reckless and lazy. The center requires you have a look at every case, individually. That’s what I’m going to do.
DEADLINE: Let’s speak about an enormous particular person case in your desk: the Menendez brothers.
HOCHMAN: I knew this was coming …
DEADLINE: I do know you knew, since you your self have spoken in regards to the brothers and the renewed curiosity of their case for a number of months now as momentum has accelerated for a reexamination of their case – one thing your predecessor picked up on within the closing days of the marketing campaign.
HOCHMAN: Yes …
DEADLINE: Even earlier than the election, whilst then DA Gascón pressed forward with resentencing suggestions and extra, you mentioned you weren’t going to make any guarantees. You mentioned that while you received right here, you’re going to take a look at the recordsdata and also you’re going to take a look at the circumstances. Just earlier than Thanksgiving, even earlier than you took workplace, Judge Michael Jesic pushed a beforehand scheduled resentencing listening to to the tip of January as a courtesy in the direction of you and your workplace to provide the time to determine what you wished to do… so the place do issues stand with the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez with you?
HOCHMAN: First of all, the courtesy by Judge Jesic is way appreciated, a lot appreciated. We have begun the method. I’ve begun the method.
DEADLINE: What has that entailed?
HOCHMAN: I’ve gotten entry now to increasingly of the recordsdata that had been confidential, the transcripts from the precise trials. We’re wanting by means of the testimony, versus the highlights of testimony that individuals have been joyful to share. We’re wanting on the legislation coping with resentencing in addition to the legislation coping with the habeas state of affairs. Do you realize the distinction?
DEADLINE: I do.
HOCHMAN: They’re completely different. You know, there might be completely different outcomes relying on which approach the legislation truly performs out. Once I rise up to hurry on my finish, I’m going to name Mark Geragos, invite him to return in and make any stage presentation he needs. I’ll make the identical supply to any sufferer member of the family if they need a private viewers with me.
DEADLINE: Numerous the household have been fairly vocal about seeing the brothers launched after nearly 30 years in jail, but it surely’s no secret that household is split.
HOCHMAN: Yes, I’ve spoken to the lawyer for the brother of Kitty Menendez, who has a unique opinion than the remainder of the household and filed completely different paperwork for it, you realize?
Anyway, on the finish of it, we’ll make the decision, as a result of the resentencing legislation is considerably distinctive for California, and it operates on a lot completely different rules than most individuals actually perceive. In different phrases, that after this course of is triggered by a DA’s movement, as a result of the protection can’t set off it by itself, then the decide will get huge quantities of discretion on what the decide needs to do. Still has to take a look at the pursuits of justice, rehabilitation, the gravity of the offense to start with, completely different information factors because the legislation has a number of components, however it’s nonetheless considerably amorphous.
(L to R) Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, Nicholas Chavez as Lyle in “Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story”
Miles Crist/Netflix
DEADLINE: This could seem pedantic, however do you assume we’d be speaking in regards to the Menendez brothers now if Ryan Murphy and Netflix hadn’t made successful present about them?
HOCHMAN: That I don’t know one or the opposite. You’ll have to speak to my predecessor about that. But right here’s the place I like the eye. I like the eye in that, you realize, if individuals are centered on prison justice points, that may be a internet constructive for our society. If it’s the Menendez case that received them , to at the least begin exploring these, these several types of points, then that’s good.
DEADLINE: On that observe, there’s an enormous distinction between campaigning and holding the workplace, so with the data of the fact out of there that many individuals in many alternative elements of the county really feel, now that you’re within the DA’s chair, what are the most important challenges you have got set for your self?
HOCHMAN: Initial challenges is getting the 2 most important drivers of prison justice and enforcement, again on observe.
That’s my very own workplace. Start with that. I imply, I’m coming into an workplace that, at one level voted 98% to help their boss’s recall. That’s nearly unparalleled.
So, these people have been, once more, enormously receptive to a newcomer, to somebody who’s mainly mentioned to them that the best asset of the DA’s workplace shouldn’t be the courtrooms, the circumstances or the computer systems, however the prosecutors themselves. To me, the mission of the DA is to maximise the best asset, which is that. So, I mainly mentioned: look, I’ve your again. You want coaching, you want assets, you want credit score for the great work you’ve been doing. I can ship on all that. Getting their belief again has been one thing that’s been completely a Day One mission, and we’re effectively on the best way. You then must convert that over to legislation enforcement, as a result of it’s nice to have the ability to prosecute the circumstances. But in the end, the pipeline of getting circumstances to the DA’s workplace is legislation enforcement.
DEADLINE: To that, one of many parts of the Menendez case is that this notion that society has modified dramatically for the reason that Nineties in our angle and response to rape and sexual violence to males. There is a notion amongst some supporters of the brothers, that with the assaults they allegedly suffered from their father and the function that performed of their shotgun killing of him and their mom, we’d have a look at what occurred in a different way as we speak, with a doable completely different consequence. What’s your perspective on that historic curve principle?
HOCHMAN: Well, the altering values in society, definitely the altering know-how that helps you do a greater job of actually understanding who’s responsible and who’s not. I believe it’s a bit simplistic to say that society again within the ’90s, didn’t acknowledge sexual abuse of younger boys or males. I believe it did. I believe there’s loads of circumstances that this workplace and workplaces throughout the state had been bringing to the courts
DEADLINE: That’s not the mantra you hear from Menendez lawyer Mark Garagos.
HOCHMAN: Mr. Geragos has been very joyful to repeat that mantra, and the media has repeated Mr. Geragos’ mantra. What I’m saying is that whether or not or not the mantra is definitely true, is that nobody’s truly seemed, that I’m conscious, to see what sorts of circumstances, within the quantity of circumstances that had been introduced the place the victims had been younger boys or younger males.
They make it look like it by no means occurred. I do know for a truth it did.
That’s half one in every of your query, which is the belief that this was by no means prosecuted, in order that the social mores on the time is that it couldn’t occur. Second assumption of your query is that within the second trial, that the difficulty wasn’t raised, as a result of, once more, that’s Mr. Geragos mantra, which the media has repeated.
DEADLINE: It sounds such as you view it as a battle on two fronts …
HOCHMAN: Do you realize whether or not or not Erik Menendez testified within the second trial?
DEADLINE: Off the highest of my head, I don’t, I imagine he did …
HOCHMAN: He did, for seven trial days.
Probably, if I needed to guess, near 40 hours of testimony the place he went into nice element, as he did within the first trial. Incident by incident by incident, between the ages, I consider about six to 18 of what his father had accomplished to him. Andy Cano, the cousin, he testified within the second trial for days, additionally in regards to the sexual abuse that was skilled by Erik that he was conscious of. So, the notion, once more, the mantra, that sexual abuse wasn’t explored within the second trial that the decide stored out all of the proof truly isn’t true.
DEADLINE: So why do you assume that has turn into so accepted then?
HOCHMAN: I imply, I’ve been doing this for 34 years, I’ve seen it. The media is in quest of easy narratives, conflicting narratives, and so it adopted the Geragos narrative. Which was very good, very artistic. It’s mainly that the trial was all about sexual abuse, that their response was due to sexual abuse. It’s {that a} conviction was solely attained as a result of the proof of sexual abuse didn’t happen within the second trial, however occurred within the first trial, and due to this fact that the underlying conviction is fallacious and needs to be fastened. Very easy narrative. What makes it a little bit bit extra sophisticated? And that’s why the media must do extra work. No offense to your occupation.
DEADLINE: That’s okay, my occupation is the enemy of the individuals in some circles, like yours is in another circles, so your criticism is simply high quality. With that perspective you’ve outlined, how will you method taking a look at this case?
HOCHMAN: Knowing the Geragos narrative is totally fallacious, the problems that we’ll be taking a look at for the trial shall be whether or not or not the these two younger males confronted an instantaneous risk to their life? Why they received to that time? How they received to the purpose is irrelevant for the trial. For the convictions, possibly not irrelevant. By the best way, definitely for resentencing, and it truly performs a unique function in resentencing.
As I mentioned, Erik Menendez was capable of testify in nice element about all of the sexual abuse he skilled. He was even capable of testify about sexual abuse that Lyle skilled. He was even capable of testify about the truth that Lyle purportedly confronted his father, their father, about this complete concern, which is why they’d some stage of worry that the daddy was going to kill them. All that was introduced to the jury, and the jury nonetheless convicted them each of first-degree homicide.
Joan VanderMolen (middle with white hair), the sister of Kitty Menendez, and legal professional Mark Geragos speak to the press in entrance of the Van Nuys West Courthouse after attending a standing listening to on the homicide conviction of Lyle and Erik Menendez on November 25, 2024
DEADLINE: Heading in the direction of subsequent month’s resentencing listening to, what are you making ready proper now?
HOCHMAN: Well, in the end, the resentencing legislation permits rehabilitation to return into a combination, so it’s not simply whether or not or not the underlying crime was confirmed and sustained on attraction, and all that. You now are coming into within the idea of rehabilitation and the pursuits of Justice on prime of that. And you do that with a reasonably imprecise customary that doesn’t give judges explicit steerage on consider all these components solely to determine whether or not or not somebody is a risk to society, poses a hazard to society, and in any other case has been rehabilitated, so and it’s considerably California distinctive in that respect.
So, we’re going to undergo all that proof and weigh all of the components and in the end come to the decide and say, to the decide, right here’s all of the information. Here are your choices. And make it possible for no matter determination is in the end made is the best-informed determination doable.
Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein seems in court docket on the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in LA on October 4, 2022
DEADLINE: On the floor, it looks like all of your workplace does generally is handle excessive profile circumstances, the Danny Mastersons, Scientology and the like. Then there’s the matter of Harvey Weinstein, who was profitable in having his East Coast conviction tossed out on attraction and is now awaiting, relying on his well being, a brand new trial subsequent 12 months. Weinstein can also be attempting to get his 2022 conviction right here on intercourse crimes and the 16 12 months sentence it carried with it dismissed. So, my query is what’s going to your workplace do if it’s a must to face one other Weinstein trial?
HOCHMAN: Again, I come from the world of doing the work in each case. So, even when one thing will get media consideration, definitely we’re going to make it possible for we get that proper. But we’re going to ensure we get it proper, even when there’s no media consideration.
With respect to Weinstein, it might rely upon how they reversed it, assuming there’s a reversal, which is a big assumption, by the best way.
DEADLINE: Point taken.
HOCHMAN: But in the event that they reversed it primarily based on saying that, I’ll simply make up a quantity. Let’s say there was 4 completely different different dangerous acts that had been let in, they usually say two of them don’t meet the authorized customary. Two shall be let in. Let’s say they’re requiring a brand new trial, assuming we then proceed to trial and there’s no settlement. In the meantime, we’d give you a trial technique that might now be in accord with the brand new guidelines set forth by the appellate court docket in that specific case. We could be very satisfied, or we wouldn’t deliver the case, that we might win that case past an affordable doubt.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a reception on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after being named TIME’s “Person of the Year” for the second time on December 12, 2024
DEADLINE: When it involves doubt, and I say this to you together with your previous life in George W. Bush’s DOJ, there’s a number of doubt, a number of worry among the many undocumented in LA that after Trump will get again in energy, the wild canines shall be off the leash and they are going to be rounded up for his mass deportations, put in camps within the desert like Japanese Americans had been in World War II. What do you say to these on this county who see a D.A. who served in a Republican administration, who, despite the fact that he ran as an Independent for D.A., ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for state Attorney General, and ask, will this man shield us?
HOCHMAN: Here’s what these individuals ought to know. They first ought to know a little bit historical past. History is a scarce useful resource on individuals’s consideration. But we don’t have to return that far. I’ll go seven years, 2017. The California Value Act, SB54 is a sanctuary state laws. If you examine that sanctuary state laws in opposition to, as an illustration, the sanctuary metropolis ordinance had simply handed, there’s nearly no distinction. It’s nearly symbolic now. SB54 was challenged by the Trump administration within the courts again in 2018 or 2019 and after they challenged it, they misplaced.
Now, now we’re going to enter a little bit bit extra historical historical past.
The LAPD has had a provision for years that claims that it’ll not arrest somebody on simply an immigration violation, and it received’t even ask them after they’re being arrested, whether or not or not they’re right here legally or documented or undocumented, right here legally or illegally. That provision is 40-plus years outdated at this level. 45 years outdated. So, the fears that individuals have, I get it. I get the understanding that if Donald Trump is available in and says, we’re going to be doing large deportation, how is he precisely going to do it? Is that going to contain native legislation enforcement giving up, the undocumented grandmother who’s cleansing homes or whatnot, there’s nothing to counsel that, that there’s any legislation, state legislation that may permit native legislation enforcement to do this.
DEADLINE: I perceive what you might be saying, however let me ask once more, can individuals, the undocumented, who work and dwell amongst us throughout this county, on this City of Angels in all industries, can they appear to you in these occasions, and amidst Trump’s threats, for defense?
HOCHMAN: The reply is sure, I’ll shield all authorized rights that immigrants have on this county to the fullest extent, full cease. I don’t must transcend that assertion.
I’ll uphold all of the legal guidelines which are on the market, together with those that shield immigrants right here in Los Angeles County, full cease. You know, for those who’re asking whether or not or not I’ll implement the sanctuary state legal guidelines, I’ll implement the sanctuary state legislation and now the sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines.
Like I mentioned, you possibly can implement the sanctuary metropolis legal guidelines by simply implementing the sanctuary state legal guidelines, as a result of they had been largely symbolic, they only repeated what was already accomplished seven years in the past, that the courts have already affirmed, and by saying that the courts have affirmed it. But be sure you perceive what I’m saying is that on the identical arguments that the Trump administration could or could not assault the present legal guidelines.
They’ve already been attacked right here.
The Ninth Circuit has already weighed in. So, except it someway will get again to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Ninth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit controls the Western federal states, together with California. So, the sanctuary state legislation is the legislation of this state, and proper now, at the least there’s no federal legislation that trumps it, which is a nasty pun, I do know.
DEADLINE: With that, and simply days after taking on as DA of a county that’s bigger and extra populated that the majority states, D.A. Hochman are you working for Governor in 2026?
HOCHMAN: [LAUGHS] I shall be past thrilled if I might simply do that job, hopefully, actually, rather well. So, no, I completely let you know I’m not working for that job.
