A. Violent
Felonious Criminal Conduct: If the victim has pled nolo contendere or been
convicted of violent felonious criminal conduct, committed within the past five
(5) years or subsequent to his or her injury, the Administrator may reduce or
deny an award to the Applicant or Applicants.
B. If the victim has pled nolo contendere or
been convicted of a crime listed in §
2.9(A) of
this Part above, the Administrator may reduce or deny an award to the Applicant
or Applicants. In determining whether to reduce or deny an award, the
Administrator may consider the following factors:
1. The remoteness in time between the prior
conviction and the application for benefits;
2. The nature and seriousness of the crime
which led to the conviction;
3. The
extent and gravity of the injury to the claimant's victim(s) in the crime which
led to the conviction;
4. The
victim's disdain for the law as represented by the extent of the victim's prior
criminal record; and
5. The
victim's remorse and rehabilitation since the conviction, such as, the efforts
made by the victim to provide restitution for the crime committed which led to
the conviction or efforts made by the victim to reimburse the office for
payments made to any person or entity in connection with the
convictions.
C. Any
individual who is incarcerated at any criminal institutional facility at the
time of his or her injury shall not be eligible to receive an award of
compensation.
D. Contribution: To
the extent the victim's acts or conduct, including past behavior, directly or
indirectly provoked or contributed to the victim's injuries, the Administrator
shall reduce or deny the award to the Applicant or Applicants.
1. Definition of contributory conduct:
Contributory conduct is intentional conduct, willingly and knowingly engaged in
by the victim that is both a direct cause, and a proximate cause, of the
victim's injuries.
2. Circumstances
that, in general, do not warrant the denial or reduction of an award based on
contributory conduct include:
a. acts of
self-defense or defense of others;
b. acts attributable to reasonable efforts by
the victim to aid a crime victim, to prevent a crime from occurring in his/her
presence, or to apprehend a person who has committed a crime in his/her
presence.
3.
Circumstances that may warrant a reduction or denial of an award based on
contributory conduct include:
a. crimes in
which the victim deliberately provoked the offender by means of fighting words,
racial or other bias-motivated taunting, or by threats coupled with overt
actions indicating the victim's intent to carry out the threat;
b. crimes in which the victim initiated or
significantly escalated a physical altercation with the offender;
c. crimes in which the victim could have
anticipated the conflict and retreated, but decided not to retreat;
d. crimes constituting acts of retaliation or
retribution for a crime or crimes previously committed by the victim;
e. crimes in which the victim acted as an
accomplice to the offender;
f.
crimes committed during the course of an illegal act in which the victim was a
knowing and willing participant;
g.
crimes in which the victim's felony criminal record, coupled with the
circumstances of the crime, lead to the reasonable inference that the crime for
which the Applicant seeks compensation was directly caused or provoked by the
victim's criminal history.
4. If the Administrator finds that a victim
knowingly and willingly engaged in intentional conduct that was a direct cause
of his/her injuries, the Administrator shall determine the proximate cause of
the victim's injuries and may deny, reduce or allow the award as follows:
a. if it was reasonably foreseeable that the
victim's contributory actions would result in injuries of the type and nature
he/she sustained, the application shall be denied (e.g. an implicit or explicit
agreement to fight, in which a physical altercation ensued resulting in mutual
injuries).
b. if it was reasonably
foreseeable that the victim's contributory conduct would result in injuries to
the victim, but it was not reasonably foreseeable that his/her actions would
result in injuries of the type and nature sustained by the victim, the award
may be reduced by fifty percent (50%) percent (e.g. victim was stabbed or shot
in response to punching the offender).
c. if the victim's injuries were not
reasonably foreseeable, the award shall not be reduced or denied even though
the victim's actions were an actual and direct cause of his injuries (e.g.
victim was stabbed or shot in response to verbal provocation of the
offender).
E.
Unjust Enrichment:
1. An Applicant shall not
be eligible for compensation if such compensation would directly or indirectly
unjustly benefit the offender.
2.
In no event shall an Applicant be denied compensation solely because of the
Applicant's or the victim's familial relationship with the offender or because
of the sharing of a residency by the victim or Applicant and the
offender.
