The family of a woman killed in a possible DUI crash seeks answers.

When it came to the case against Jacques Clarke, the Carmel Valley teenager accused of driving under the influence and manslaughter in the crash that killed 39-year-old Rosie Figueroa, three words help explain why the charges against him were dismissed: Mistakes were made.

The mistakes started when CHP arrived on the scene of the Dec. 20, 2019 crash on Davis Road near Lemos Road. Officers “contaminated” the scene, defense attorney Charlie Keeley says, by placing Clarke back inside his Mazda to determine if the driver’s seat was adjusted to fit Clarke or his taller companion, Tyrone Moore Jr. The mobile video and audio recording system each CHP patrol car carries failed to activate, meaning the officer had to rely on his written notes of his interview with Clarke and Moore. No field sobriety test was given to Moore, and officers also allowed Moore’s mother to speak to him at the scene.

Moore initially told officers that night he had been driving, but after the conversation with his mother, his story changed: Clarke, who had a blood-alcohol level of .152, was the driver, Moore claimed. But Clarke’s DNA was found on the passenger-side airbag.

“The CHP made so many mistakes. There were all kinds of assumptions,” Keeley says. “I feel terrible for the Figueroa family because they should get justice, and Jacques and his family feel the same way. The DA in the case is a terrific lawyer, but she couldn’t re-create evidence a year later.”

On Dec. 4, Monterey Superior Court Judge Andrew Liu dismissed the case against Clarke, calling the twists leading to the dismissal “avoidable.”

And a week later, on Dec. 11, Rosie Figueroa’s brother and mother, a passenger in Rosie’s car that night, along with other family members and about two dozen supporters, gathered outside the District Attorney’s Office with a few goals. They want to keep Rosie’s name in people’s minds, to ask people to never drink and drive and to remind the DA they’re still seeking justice for their sister and daughter, who left behind a 4-year-old child and who, through her work at San Andreas Regional Center, helped dozens of children with special needs through the educational system.

“We’re never going to get my sister back,” says her brother, Socrates Figueroa, “but we want someone to be held responsible. It’s not right they walk away.

“Maybe somebody has some information,” he says. “If they do, reach out and help guide this investigation further.”