VAN NUYS : Key Menendez Hearing Rescheduled for Today
A key hearing in the Menendez brothers’ murder trial was postponed until today because of a defense attorney’s family emergency.
Deputy Public Defender Bill Weiss did not appear at a hearing Monday before Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg, and co-counsel Terri Towery told Weisberg there had been an accident involving someone in Weiss’ family over the weekend. At Towery’s request, the judge rescheduled the hearing for today.
Lyle Menendez, 26, and Erik Menendez, 23, remain in County Jail without bail, awaiting a retrial in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their parents. At their first trial, separate juries deadlocked between murder and lesser manslaughter charges.
Today, Weisberg is due to fix a date for the brothers’ retrial, to decide whether the brothers will be tried together or apart, to pick between one jury or two if they are tried together, and to decide whether the retrial will be held in Van Nuys or another county courthouse.
The judge postponed until July 22 a hearing on a prosecution bid to obtain audiotapes from free-lance journalist Robert Rand.
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