High-profile Los Angeles County prosecutor John Lewin is seeking nearly $80,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs even though his motion to be dismissed from one of a pair of lawsuits filed by two prosecutors was never heard. The attorney’s fees were racked up in a case where two other prosecutors allege they were wrongfully demoted for their support for resentencing of the Menendez brothers.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was filed April 7 by Deputy District Attorneys Brock Lunsford, the same day another prosecutor, Nancy Theberge, filed a similar complaint as both felt they were wrongfully demoted. The plaintiffs’ allegations include whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment, both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and violations of the state Labor Code, as well as defamation and self-defamation.
The prosecutors sued Los Angeles County, current District Attorney Nathan Hochman and the prosecutor who had filed the dismissal motion, John Lewin. But before the Lewin motion could be heard, Lunsford’s attorneys dropped all claims against him.
Nonetheless, Lewin’s attorneys maintain he is entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs as the presumed winner in the dismissal motion as well as for the preparation of the current motion for attorneys’ fees for a total of about $77,030 plus interest running from the date of any court order granting the Lewin’s fees request. A hearing is scheduled Jan. 20.
Lewin was the lead prosecutor in the trial of Robert Durst, a New York real estate heir who was serving life in prison without parole when he died in January 2022 at age 78 of natural causes. Durst was convicted in September 2021 of first-degree murder for the December 2000 shooting death of Susan Berman.
The alleged defamation involved comments made by Lewin, in which he gave his opinion of the Menendez re-sentencing motion. Lawyers for Lewin and the county, which filed its own anti-SLAPP motion, contended the two claims arose from protected speech.
The state’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
“The statements at issue are classic examples of nonactionable opinion or true factual assertions,” Lewin’s attorneys stated in their court papers. “Courts consistently hold that subjective judgments about work quality, competence, honesty or motives, especially in the context of public debate, are not actionable as defamation.”
Lewin’s lawyers also contended that the plaintiffs’ emotional distress claims fail because there is no evidence of “extreme or outrageous conduct” on Lewin’s part.
Theberge believed that resentencing the Menendezes was required by law and that it would be unlawful to not bring such a motion, the suit states. However, after former District Attorney George Gascón lost in November and Hochman took office, he removed both Theberge and Lunsford from the case and both were demoted almost immediately, according to her suit.
Theberge, a unit leader, was transferred out of the District Attorney’s Office entirely and reassigned to the Alternate Public Defender’s Office, which her complaint describes as a “clear punitive move.”
Lunsford, a 25-year veteran, was stripped of his supervisory duties and reassigned to a low-level calendar deputy position in a remote branch court, according to his suit.