The Kitty and José Menendez family submitted a formal complaint and motion to encourage the office of the public prosecutor in Los Angeles to comply with the law of Marsy after the DA that unexpected graphic crime photos showed during a hearing of 11 April.
The California Victims’ Bill of Rights Act, popularly known as Marsy’s Law, states that victims of crimes should be dealt with “fairness and respect for his or her privacy and dignity, and to be free of intimidation, intimidation and abuse, during the criminal or Juvenile judicial process.” The family argues that the photos used by the Da Unearthed trauma and led to the hospitalization of the sister of José Menendez, Terry Baralt, who “experienced such serious emotional need” when seeing the images.
“We never thought we should fight to be treated with respect and dignity,” the Menendez family wrote in a statement. “But last Friday our whole family was blinded again. Without warning, the office of the public prosecutor showed horrible, graphic photos of the bodies of our loved ones. No heads-up, no compassion, no humanity. Our whole family was again traumatized by the graphic representation and again, when Terry was in the hospital today.”
The motion states that the photos are “free and unnecessarily displayed”, and that the DA had no goal to use them in court than “set up emotions to achieve maximum ‘shock’ value. By the complaint the family asks the court to reprimand the office of the DA and to require a prior notice of further reflections in future hearings.