Victory Outreach Church Lawsuits and Legal Troubles

Victory Outreach Church has faced a range of lawsuits and legal troubles over the past three decades, including a pending wrongful death suit tied to a fatal fentanyl overdose at one of its recovery homes, a 2025 California workers’ compensation ruling that found recovery-home residents were unpaid employees rather than volunteers, a criminal charge against a San Diego-area pastor for failing to report the sexual assault of a teenage choir member, and an earlier wrongful death case brought after a deadly church van crash in Illinois. The network, founded in 1967 by Sonny and Julie Arguinzoni and headquartered in San Dimas, California, includes more than 700 churches worldwide, each operating as an independent, self-governing corporation under the Victory Outreach umbrella.¹²

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Over a Recovery Home Overdose

In August 2022, David and Rosa Trujeque sued Victory Outreach in Los Angeles County Superior Court as successors-in-interest to their 21-year-old son, Justin Trujeque, who died on May 11, 2022, at a Victory Outreach-affiliated halfway house on Aldama Street in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled the death an accidental fentanyl intoxication.³

The complaint names Victory Outreach, Victory Outreach International, Victory Outreach Eagle Rock, Inner City Recovery Homes International, Victory Outreach Christian Recovery Homes Inc., Victory Homes International, and four individuals: Roger Soto, Jasmine Galvez, Augie Barajas, and Mary Barajas.⁴ The plaintiffs allege the defendants failed to supervise Justin, who struggled with drug addiction, and failed to seek medical care after he showed signs of illness and drug use. The complaint also includes fraud claims tied to representations made during intake.⁵

In August 2024, the court overruled demurrers filed by the organizational defendants, allowing the negligence and wrongful death claims to move forward. Motions to strike punitive damages were denied against the entities. Fraud-related demurrers for the four individual defendants were sustained with leave to amend.⁵ The case remained active as of late 2024.⁴

Workers’ Compensation Ruling on Recovery Home Labor

In 2025, the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board issued a ruling in Derryl Thompson v. Victory Outreach Chino that affirmed a recovery-home resident injured while working at a Mecum Auctions event at the Pomona Fairgrounds in February 2017 was an employee, not a volunteer, and was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits.⁶

Thompson testified that residents were required to perform outside jobs as a condition of staying in the program. Refusal meant additional chores or threats of being transferred to another home that might not accept them.⁷ At the auction, residents wore Mecum uniforms and performed the same tasks as paid workers. Evidence included a spreadsheet showing Mecum paid Victory Outreach $14,152 with the memo line “LABOR.”⁶

Victory Outreach and Mecum both argued the residents were volunteers excluded from coverage. A Victory Outreach representative testified that residents were not paid individually because they were considered volunteers and that Mecum’s payments were divided among Victory homes. The board rejected that defense, writing that the services “were not voluntary simply because the employers felt charitable” and that the residents “were no different from the covered Mecum workforce.” The board also found that Victory Outreach required residents to apply for food stamps and turn them over to cover housing.⁷ On August 18, 2025, the board denied petitions for reconsideration from both companies.⁶

Earlier Allegations About Recovery Home Labor and Oversight

The labor questions in the Thompson case echo allegations that have followed Victory Outreach for decades. A 1999 Los Angeles Times investigation reported that former pastors and members accused the ministry of running what critics called a “spiritual pyramid scheme” that profited from “slave labor.” Recovery-home residents were regularly sent out to work in construction, painting, and landscaping, with their pay turned over to the church. One contractor told the paper he paid the church $240 per day for an eight-man crew. A former resident described a 25-person crew that earned roughly $1,000 per day at the Great America theme park, with the home keeping all of the proceeds.⁸

Former directors also alleged that leadership instructed residents to tell welfare caseworkers they were unemployable due to substance abuse so they could collect benefits while working off-site. In the early 1990s, the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs investigated Victory Outreach homes and found overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and poor food. In August 1992, after only four of roughly 70 homes were licensed, the church withdrew its California license applications, a move officials said was intended to keep its programs outside state oversight by framing them as spiritual rather than medical. Two lawsuits from that era, one involving a man injured in a church van accident and another involving a resident whose earlobe was bitten off by the founder’s dog, alleged the church intimidated members into staying silent. Both settled out of court, and the church denied the allegations.⁸

Pastor Charged With Failing to Report Child Sexual Abuse

In June 2024, San Diego County prosecutors charged Eric Manuel Merino, the 43-year-old pastor of Victory Outreach Church in San Ysidro, California, with one misdemeanor count of violating the state’s mandated-reporter law. Prosecutors alleged Merino learned a teenage choir member had been sexually assaulted by the church’s choir leader, Rafael Valentin Magana, but did not notify police or child welfare services.⁹

The underlying assault took place on November 6, 2021, when Magana allegedly drove the 15-year-old victim to a location in Paradise Hills and assaulted her in his vehicle.¹⁰ Magana was convicted in April 2024 of one felony count of a lewd act on a child, faced up to three years in prison, and was ordered to register as a sex offender.¹¹ Merino was arraigned on June 6, 2024, and pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Brian Carter, said the pastor cooperated with investigators and “wholly adhered to all mandatory reporting obligations.” If convicted, Merino faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.¹²

Church Van Crash Wrongful Death Suit

In May 2013, a 15-passenger Dodge van carrying 11 members of Victory Outreach Baltimore back from a church conference in Ontario, California, left Interstate 70 near Vandalia, Illinois, flipped four times, and ejected nine passengers. Five men died at the scene: Andrew James Canada (53), Emerson Baldwin (54), Antonie Mitchell (42), Mark William (52), and Thomas Coleman (29).¹³ The driver, Malcolm Purnell, was ticketed for improper lane usage and for driving on a suspended New Jersey license. Fayette County State’s Attorney Joshua Morrison announced no criminal charges would be filed, calling the crash a “tragic accident.”¹⁴

In June 2014, the estate of Andrew Canada filed a $5 million wrongful death suit in Baltimore City Circuit Court against Victory Outreach Baltimore and its pastors, Gerry and Melinda Bell, alleging three counts of negligence for allowing Purnell to drive despite his suspended license.¹³ One day before the lawsuit was filed, on June 26, 2014, the Bells filed a bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore, and the wrongful death case was stayed.¹⁵ Available records do not show whether the bankruptcy was ultimately resolved or whether the wrongful death case ever proceeded past the stay.

Trademark and Other Civil Matters

Victory Outreach International has also gone to court to protect its name. In January 2020, the organization sued Praise of Victory Outreach Ministry and its leader, Bernice Bigelow, in the Central District of California. Court filings reference trademark registrations held by Victory Outreach International, including “Treasures Out of Darkness” and “Alcance Victoria.” Specific claims and the outcome are not detailed in available records.¹⁶

In a separate matter, Victory Outreach Ministries, Inc. and several individual plaintiffs filed a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Rockville Bank and other defendants in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in November 2013. The underlying facts are not detailed in available records. The court denied class certification and dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims in June 2014, and the case was terminated that September.¹⁷

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Victory Outreach. Our History
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Victory Outreach. Structure
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Hollywood LA News. Justin Trujeque Dead
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Trellis Law. David Trujeque Et Al vs Victory Outreach Et Al
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UniCourt. David Trujeque Et Al vs Victory Outreach Et Al
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California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. Derryl Thompson v. Victory Outreach Chino, ADJ10983565
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CaseMine. Derryl Thompson v. Victory Outreach Chino Et Al
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Los Angeles Times. Victory Outreach Investigation
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FOX 5 San Diego. South Bay Pastor Facing Charge in Sexual Assault of Teen Choir Member
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NBC San Diego. San Diego Pastor Being Prosecuted for Not Turning in Choir Leader Who Sexually Abused Teen Girl
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DA News Center. Victory Outreach Church in San Ysidro
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ChurchLeaders. California Pastor Victory Outreach Church Pleads Not Guilty Mandatory Reporter
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Baltimore Sun. Family of Man Killed in Van Crash Sues Church
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NBC Philadelphia. Prosecutor: No Charges Planned in Deadly Van Wreck
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CBS News Baltimore. MD Bankruptcy Halts Suit in Deadly Illinois Crash
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Huski AI. Victory Outreach International v. Praise of Victory Outreach Ministry Et Al
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PACER Monitor. Victory Outreach Ministries Inc Et Al v. Rockville Bank Et Al