Mark Merjil's Investigation
By: Kaitlyn McMullin and Jazmine Martinez
On Jan. 19, 20-year-old Eddie Estrella tweeted an allegation regarding his former stepfather, Mark Merjil,
“Since our justice system has failed me and my little brother I felt that it was right to let as many people know about this as possible. My ex stepdad Mark Merjil sexually assaulted me and my brother for years and is getting away with it. He is an adjunct professor for Chaffey College and runs the Child Development Center at SB Valley College. He works with children all day, every day, and I'm trying to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else...”
When the news broke out to staff in The Breeze, Chaffey College's newspaper, they began investigating Merjil. Breeze reporter Jazmine Martinez reached out to learn about Estrella's side of the story.
Estrella revealed he is coming out with his story now because he does not want Merjil to be, “working with kids and young adults anymore”; he does not want anyone else to endure what allegedly happened to him.
Estrella was a high school freshman when his mother began to date Merjil, who was at the time her professor.
Estrella says, “[…]Mark was essentially the dad I always wanted. We were closer than close… My sophomore/junior year is when the sexual assault was happening… [what he] started doing made very uncomfortable.”
Estrella stated Merjil did stop once he told him that he did not feel comfortable with it but their relationship “quickly went downhill” after that. It got to the point where Merjil allegedly kicked Estrella out twice and was gone for a couple months, the first time being kicked out in 2019 and the second time he hasn't returned.
Jazmine Martinez reached out to former and current students of Merjil as well.
All interviewed students were surprised by the allegations made against Merjil, “[…] he was a nice guy […] and very open about his childhood.”
Former student, Vanessa was asked if she ever thought Merjil was capable of doing as the allegation claims,
"Never! He would always talk about his kids and how proud he was of them… which is why I was so shocked when the allegations came out.”
Gisselle, former student, mentioned that her former classmates found some questions on the test to be strange, "[…] but me being in a class with him was actually okay."
Arturo Gutierrez, current student, spoke on how he did not get any bad impressions from Merjil during his child development class. Multiple students mentioned Merjil would often speak openly about his own upbringing and he was sexually assaulted as a child, and the allegations to be, “very shocking.”
Since Estrella has tweeted the allegations, Merjil seems to have deleted all social media platforms.
Many of the tweets seem to be in shock of the allegations against a professor who works in child development, while others have sent condolences to Estrella and his brother.
Martinez has reached out to Merjil, but he has not responded to her efforts.
Currently all of Merjil’s classes at Chaffey are being substituted by professor Jolie A. Crosthwaite-Vanschoik. Martinez was unable to interview anyone at SB Valley so it is unknown what is happening there. According to Estrella, while the investigation is ongoing with Chaffey’s and SB Valley’s Police Department, Child Protective Services (CPS) has gotten involved and Merjil is no longer able to see his daughters, it is unknown for how long.