2023-04-23 08:05:00
Sebastián Villegas has been a civil judge in Rincón de los Sauces since 2016. In 2019, an official denounced him for sexual harassment and psychological violence. Next Tuesday the jury will begin that could end with his expulsion from the Judiciary.
The trial jury is the court that judges Neuquén judges when they are accused of poor performance in their duties and has the power to dismiss them. It is made up of three members of the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ), two provincial legislators and two lawyers.
In this case will intervene: Evaldo Moya, Alfredo Elosu Larumbe and Germain Busamia (TSJ), the deputy Maria Laura Du Plessis (MPN) and its peer Sergio Fernandez Novoa (Front of All), and the lawyers Nicolás Lupetrone and Simón Julio César Hadad.
The prosecution will be in charge of chief prosecutor Pablo Vignaroli, and not from José Gerez, who intervened until now. The defense will exercise Iris Sandoval.
The jury will last for three days-from April 25 to 27- and will be held at the Legislature. In total, it is expected that testify 29 witnessesso there will be a double day of hearing: morning and afternoon.
The development is very similar to that of a criminal trial. There are opening arguments (the prosecution presents the facts and evidence, and the defense their thesis) and closing arguments (they ask for acquittal or conviction). The court has a maximum of 15 days to issue a sentence. The sanctions it imposes are of two types: suspensionfrom 1 to 60 days without pay, or removal from office.
The jury’s decision can be appealed before the civil court of the TSJ and go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The last jury that was held in the province was against Santiago Teránwho was chief prosecutor of Cutral Co, due to his repeated misogynistic expressions. By majority the jury suspended him and he retired in 2021. The Council of the Magistracy has not yet managed to fill the position.
The case
Soledad Garayo was pro-secretary of the Villegas court in 2017. According to the prosecution’s accusation, the judge “provided inadequate treatment to the complainant” which consisted of “initiate intimate conversations, make advances on her, “flirt” with her, persistently offer to drive her from the courthouse to the place where she was staying, and even order her not to associate with a co-worker«.
The magistrate made comments about her physical appearance and shared photos that she had posted on social networks. By rejecting it, Villegas’ attitude changed completely and he began to ridicule her, undermining her before her employees.
This is a way of exercising gender violence, which is aggravated according to the prosecution, “because it occurred within the Judiciary and by a magistrate, insofar as they are precisely those called to guarantee the rights that, in the case, were violated.” ».
Garayo will be the first witness to testify on Tuesday.
In his defense, the judge denied the facts and said that the complaint was due to the fact that he was seeking “to take revenge for not improperly helping her to win the contest for Clerk of the Rincón de los Sauces Court.”
During the jury, the Sejun union will intervene as a “friend of the court”, this means that its representatives will give their opinion on the issues that are being discussed in the case. They will do it on Thursday, before the closing arguments.
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