Nima Momeni attorneys request change of venue, trial date set
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A trial date for accused Bob Lee killer Nima Momeni was set for March 15, 2024, during a court appearance Thursday in which Momeni’s lawyers requested a change of venue. Attorneys for Momeni expressed disgust at the publication of photos showing Momeni in his cell by SF Standard.
Momeni’s lawyers said in their 27 years of practicing law, they had never had pretrial images like the ones that were published taken without a client’s consent. The judge at Thursday’s proceedings said that an internal investigation was underway regarding the photos.
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Momeni’s legal team includes San Francisco lawyer Tony Brass and Florida “celebrity attorney” Saam Zangeneh, along with Bradford Cohen, another Florida-based attorney.
“What they did was disgusting, what they did was illegal, what they did was civilly responsible, and someone is going to be held responsible, there will be a reckoning for what happened in that article,” said attorney Bradford Cohen.
KRON4 reached out to SF Standard about the publication of the photos and received the following statement:
“A freelance photographer had permission to take photos inside the jail and Nima Momeni gave the photographer permission to have his photo taken. We contacted Momeni’s legal team prior to publication and they did not raise objections or concerns about the publication of the images. The Standard believes the images were entirely newsworthy.”
Momeni was arrested in mid-April following the April 4 fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee. While initial reaction to Lee’s stabbing suggested the tech entrepreneur had been killed by a homeless person or been a victim of random street crime, court testimony has since revealed that the two men knew each other.
Lee was with Momeni’s sister Khazar Momeni in the hours prior to his killing. Prosecutors argue that Nima Momeni stabbed Lee after confronting him about his relationship to his sister and whether the two had been taking drugs together.
Khazar Momeni was arrested in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood earlier this week and charged with suspicion of DUI.
In requesting a change of venue, Momeni’s attorneys argue that Bob Lee was a celebrity in the Bay Area tech world — comparing him to a Los Angeles Lakers player in LA — and it’s therefore impossible to have a fair trial in SF.
“Bob Lee is a local luminary in the tech industry and that’s what San Francisco is, it’s known for being Silicon Valley,” said attorney Saam Zangeneh. “So it’s kind of like a Los Angeles Laker is part of a homicide, you think they would get a fair trial in LA? I don’t think so.”
In addition to filing a motion for a change of venue, Momeni’s attorneys Thursday filed a motion to show cause because they asked to release Momeni’s car without fees, which wasn’t honored despite having a judge’s signed order.
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