Biography
Mireya Arias was imprisoned in California following a prosecution over gender-discrimination lawsuits against hair salons and dry cleaners. She and attorney Rogelio Morales visited businesses and brought claims over different prices charged to women and men. Police arrested them on April 20, 2017. Arias was convicted on December 3, 2018, of thirty-one counts of extortion, attempted grand theft and burglary, with hate-crime enhancements, and was remanded to jail. She received a sentence of seven years and eight months on March 29, 2019.
Arias was released from prison on July 30, 2020. Her actual confinement totaled 614 days, including presentencing custody and excluding parole. The California Court of Appeal reversed all her convictions on June 18, 2021, finding insufficient evidence that the discrimination lawsuits were unlawful. The charges were dismissed on September 3, 2021, and a court found her factually innocent in April 2023.
In a proposed decision dated April 24, 2025, CalVCB hearing officer Laura Simpton recommended $85,960 compensation for Arias’s 614 actual days of imprisonment. The recommendation excluded the remaining 358 claimed days because incarceration during them was not established. The analysis accepted the superior court’s April 26, 2023 factual-innocence finding, as confirmed by certified minutes and later proceedings. Recommended payment is not proof of final approval or actual payment.
