Funeral-Expense Award from NYS Crime Victims Board Should Not Have Been Reduced by 50% Based on the Victim’s Alleged Involvement in Criminal Activity

The Second Department determined that the reimbursement of funeral expenses from the NYS Crime Victims Board should not have been reduced by 50% on the ground that the victim engaged in conduct contributing to the crime.  The court wrote:

… [G]eneral knowledge that narcotics sellers are subject to a greater risk of being violently murdered is not sufficient to supply a record-based relationship between the subject homicide and the victim’s alleged conduct. Under the particular circumstances of this case, the [Office of Victim Services] determination affirming the decision reducing the petitioner’s award by 50% based upon a finding that the victim engaged in culpable conduct “logically and rationally related to the crime by which the victim was victimized” (9 NYCRR 525.3[b]) was “taken without sound basis in reason or regard to the facts”… . Matter of Cox v Office of Victim Servs, 2013 NY Slip Op 06566, 2nd Dept 10-9-13