The justice of the province of La Rioja opened an internal investigation in recent weeks against the Criminal and Correctional Investigation Judge No. 2 of Chilecito, Virginia Illanes Bordón. The provincial prosecutor Diego Torres Pagnussat promoted criminal action for the crimes of passive bribery, malfeasance and fraud.
This is the second provincial magistrate denounced in recent days. The previous one had been Norma Abate de Mazzucchelli, accused of requesting a bribe of 8 million pesos to unblock a successiona complaint for which the provincial Judicial Council launched the impeachment trial.
In the case of Illanes Bordón, the judge is accused of having collected money from people who had criminal cases. “Unlike the Mazzuchelli case, here the sum of money was received, it is a serious crime,” said lawyer David Calipo, who filed the complaint.
And he expanded: “One of the cases that I reported has to do with a well-known businessman from the city of Chilecito, where the Public Prosecutor’s Minister asks that progress be made based on an accusation of attempted homicide and she prosecutes him for a lesser crime. serious, and he ends up being granted freedom, and later he is the one who reports that the doctor stopped by his home to withdraw a sum of money.”
“They are dirtying the name of the judicial function. (…) One of the complaints is dated October of last year, there are 97 certified captures of conversations between the magistrate and one of the people, documentary evidence, proof of bank transfer,” said the lawyer in radio phoenix.
The complaining lawyer also indicated that two people from the magistrate’s inner circle showed up to testify and said “terrible things”: “She used the police function to have her house cleaned, her cell phones to have debris removed from her house. .. What needs to be done to make institutions work? The complaints are presented to the Judicial Council. The judge’s cases are prescribed, certain files are lost, she has left society without justice. They are sufficient cause for her removal from office,” he concluded.
The complaint against Judge Mazzuchelli came to light thanks to the testimony of the merchant Manuela Saavedrawho told the program Telenight (The thirteen) how it was that the judge had asked for 8 million pesos as “recognition” to expedite a family succession process. Furthermore, her statements were accompanied by audiovisual material that further complicates the situation for the person who was first vice president of the Association of Women Judges of Argentina.
According to Saavedra’s story, Abate de Mazzuchelli had three meetings with her. In the first meeting, it was the merchant who approached the magistrate to find out why the file was paralyzed. Hours later, the judge would have been present at the woman’s business, claiming that the services could be ready shortly.
This would have led to a third meeting in which Abate de Mazzucchelli requested a sum of money to unblock the case, something that would be included in the fees of the lawyer who handled the succession, but that she would collect.
At that time, the businesswoman recorded a video in which the magistrate can be heard complaining about low salaries. The judge was direct and asked: “How much do you think you can (pay)?”. “Who did everything to you? Who managed everything for you? The lawyers were not here.”
“It’s simple, Manuela. Here, no one is going to put a gun to your chest,” said Abate de Mazzucchelli. Thus, Saavedra completed that the judge told him: “I am going to set fees for your lawyer and those fees are going to be mine. You understand me, because you are intelligent”.
After that, always following the story of the Riojan merchant, Abate de Mazzucchelli wrote an “8” on a piece of paper, requiring 8 million pesos for the process and questioning the work of the lawyers handling the file.
As a result of these complaints, the Superior Court of Justice reported that the Prosecution Jury (Jury) was formed against the magistrate, made up of representatives of the Judicial, Legislative, Executive Functions and the Professional Council of Lawyers and Attorneys of La Rioja .
