HARTFORD — The Connecticut Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit filed by a slain prison inmate’s relatives, who are seeking money from the state’s crime victim compensation program.
Justices earlier this week overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by Kevin Cales’ family on the basis that it was filed too late.
Cales’ mother and sister sued the state Office of Victim Services in 2009, after the office rejected their request for crime victim compensation. The office said compensation wasn’t warranted, because Cales’ behavior contributed to his own death.
Cales was serving a 79-year sentence for causing a car wreck in Berlin that killed five people. He was slain in 2008 at a Suffield prison by another inmate, who was related to one of the crash victims.
