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April 15, 2024
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A restaurant manager from Orange experienced 3rd degree burns recently, figuratively and literally. He got burned once when he was lighting the pilot light to his meth lab and it exploded. He got burned a second time when he blamed the burns on a water heater explosion and claimed workers’ compensation. The third burn came when three separate criminal charges were filed against him.

Richard Martinez has been charged with one count of manufacturing methamphetamines, seven counts of workers' compensation fraud and one count of grand theft.

The 33-year-old man was the manager of the Zapopan Bakery & Restaurant. Martinez hoped workers’ compensation would cover his medical bills totaling over $400,000 for burns he sustained over 60 percent of his body.

But fire officials investigated the explosion and discovered that it was a meth lab that had exploded upstairs at the restaurant April 4, 2000.

He never received that much money, said the prosecutor according to The Associated Press. “It is safe to say that a minimum of $15,000 in benefits made it to his pockets.”

As of April 9 Martinez was released from authorities on $25,000 bail, but if convicted on all counts, he is looking at 10 years behind bars.