The California crime victims ordered to change the course: “They did not raise a damn finger”

The agency “will have to comply, and that is the important thing, comply with the law to better serve our victims,” ​​he said.

Previously, the Compensation Board had supported a regulation “that allowed the resolution of the majority of the appeals in the written record,” according to the request. But all that changed in August 2024, when the Judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, Frank Roesch, determined that the regulation was “contrary to the statute and, therefore, is not valid.”

The decision concluded a judicial battle of approximately three years. In 2021, Mothers Against Murder, a non -profit organization that advocates the victims of the crime and their families, sued the compensation board, claiming that “he had resisted and doubled by continuing to deny hundreds of applicants their right to due process and the audience in person,” wrote executive director Margaret Petros in her original request.

“They are using this regulation to facilitate it,” he said in an interview with Calmatters. “It is a very forceful abuse of power.”

‘The whole story is being lost’

According to judicial presentations in the case of mothers against the murder, Marichalar was one of the first people in which they were denied a audience in person.

On September 30, 2012, his son, Junior Marichalar, and a friend arrived at a bar in San José. Shortly after, according to judicial presentations, two men caused Marichalar and challenged him to fight.

With experience in mixed martial arts, Marichalar was “disciplined and trained to get away from a challenge to fight,” according to judicial presentations. In an attempt to avoid men, he left the bar through a back door, but the judicial documents declared that he faced again in the parking lot, where he was fatally stabbed.

In February 2013, the Compensation Board wrote that it denied the assistance of Ruby Marichalar because “(his) son knowingly and voluntarily left a bar with the intention of fighting with the suspect that resulted in the death of (his) son.” His decision was based on a recommendation of the Silicon Valley Conference for Community and Justice, a non -profit organization that was hired by the Compensation Board, according to judicial presentations.

“My son did not contribute to his murder,” Marichalar wrote by appealing the recommendation. “How could a reasonable person know that his life will be taken violently? A criminal stabbed him to death.”

The Compensation Board once again denied its compensation application without offering an audience in person.

Without the funds to pay for his son’s funeral, Marichalar borrow money from family and friends, and was forced to sell his motorcycle, one of the last remaining possessions he had of him.

“I broke my heart even more,” he said.

After his death at age 28, Marichalar said he received telephone calls from People Junior had known while traveling on his motorcycle throughout the country. She described him as a great character and a boy standing.

“Sweet as a cake,” he said.

The Compensation Board finally revoked its denial, but only after a prosecutor from Santa Clara Clear intervened and opposed its decision, according to judicial presentations. Later, the agency reimbursed Marichalar with $ 5,000, only one third of what he spent on the funeral.

Looking back in its two -year correspondence with the Board, Marichalar said that the opportunity to appear at a audience in person would have allowed the agency to see for what was happening, instead of simply checking the paperwork.

“The whole story is being lost without taking the time to listen to the victims,” ​​he said.

While considering that the court order is “a long time ago”, distrust that the Compensation Board should receive more money.

“Are you going to hit it in your pockets?” She said.

Cayla Mihalovich is a local news fellow from California.