Case of Lucía Pérez: why the judges maintain that there was no sexual abuse or femicide

The death of the student Lucía Pérez, 16 years old it was not a femicide. There was no badual abuse of two adults, but consensual relationships with one of them, the youngest, who at the same time sold cocaine. And despite the fact that during the investigation, the prosecutor stated that there was impalement, the cause of cardiac arrest was a overdose. Such were the conclusions of the court after a month of trial.

The Criminal Court No. 1 Mar del Plata arrived at that time and presented his report Monday at the last hearing. The sentenced judges Matías Farías and Pablo Offinadi, adults aged 23 and 41 at the time of the incident, not for Lucia's crime but for the crime of sell illicit drugs (and to minors and near schools). And they will pbad eight years in prison.

In 71 pages of sheets the judges officiated Pablo Viñas, Facundo Gómez Urso and Aldo Carnevale they argued their position in five concepts: the poor performance of the prosecutor María Isabel Sánchez, which conditioned the public opinion by installing an "impalement" that did not exist, the privacy of Perez, the discussions that the girl had with her friends and with the youngest of the accused during the hours before the facts, the autopsy, and the attitude of Farías during relations with Lucia and after his death.

For the Sanchez prosecutor on October 8, 2016, around 9am, Farias and Offidani, in his van, went to fetch Lucía Pérez Montero and took him to Racedo's home at 48 hours, where he was living. Farías, with the aim of badually abusing the teenager by taking advantage of her addiction. The researcher spoke about violence and drug abuse and this situation resulted in the death of Pérez, who Offidani, with the accomplice, took his pickup truck to the hospital.

But the judges they destroyed the work of the prosecutor ("She exposed without any pretense that the minor Lucía Pérez had died as a result of an inhuman badual badault caused by an impal bad" or "a horrible story that emerged from Dr. Sánchez's imagination") and between considerations of misogynistic dyeing, the strength of some medico-legal tests and the interpretation of Farías's behavior, They gave the reason to the defense counsel of the accused, who argued that the relationship had been agreed and that Lucia's death was exclusively due to an overdose.

For Carnevale JA, "Lucia was a normal life person and no one mentioned that the subject of their addiction had become a matter of concern to anyone in their environment or who had led to maddening situation of badual submission get narcotics. "

The Court suggests that Pérez was not a person "who could easily be subjected to badual intercourse without his consent", because, according to the judges, it was, according to the recorded conversations, of people who did not He only used substances when he bought them and he willingly chose the men he wanted to be with.

"You can clearly visualize Lucia's degree of self-determination," says Carnevale, who transcribes a speech in which the girl tells how dealer He wanted to sleep with her and he would not let her go.

Although the judge makes it clear that it's not in his mind to get into Perez's bad life, Carnevale writes, "It's very important to reinforce this idea that Lucia would not be with anyone without her consent, the No. 10 cat she had with a young man identified as "friend of Juli", in which after exchanging innuendos of badual content, photographs in underwear and even the member virile of youth, Lucia slows down in advance The same thing says to him directly "is that you are 17 years old and that I have been with chabones of 29,28, 26, 23, 21" ".

Then, the magistrate concludes that "according to the discussions badyzed, it is clear that his experiences in this sense completely discard the possibility that he was submitted without his will".

The Court asks: "Is there a relationship of subordination between Lucia and Farías who incited her to have bad without consent?"

For Judge Carnevale, who directs the decision, "none of this existed". And she attacks the prosecutor: "He tries to channel in any way the fault of Dr. Sanchez, false expectations generated by itself. "

"Lucia was 16 years old and Farías 23 years old, so He would be very obliged to speak of a situation of inequality or superiorityespecially if one takes into account the personality of Lucía who did not present herself as a girl of her age and who also declared having relations with men under 29 years.

For the judges, there is no evidence that Farías badped Pérezon the contrary: they indicate that it has been shown that they felt a reciprocal attraction. For example, they said that Lucia had thought to tell her that she was 17 years old to look fatter.

Neither tests that show the boy's intention of badually abusing the teenager. He considers that they had "an extended message exchange" in which music was sent and "no reference was made to a badual subject".

In addition, they considered it remarkable that Farías, at the previous meeting with Lucia, "He bought bills and a Cindor" because they had agreed to drink matte. "These attitudes are not usually badumed by people who intend to commit such an absurd act.Carnevale remarked, who also celebrated the later behavior of the man.

"The first thing Farías did did not hide the fact, he also did not try to avoid his responsibility, but he called Offidani and, in his vehicle, they took her away (apparently already lifeless ) at the neighborhood health room.. But not only did she go to see a doctor, she also stayed there to find out what happened to Lucia even when (as witnessed by Mauricio Fabián Stambulsky) could have accompanied Offidani and Maciel before anyone noticed. its presence ", explains the Court.

In the decision, the judges of the CTO 1 of Mar del Plata describe the testimony of a police stationed in the health room indicating that in his statement, Farías would have told him that Lucia was 18 years old they had taken cocaine. And another policeman said that while they were going to get the girl's business at home on a cell phone, he had told them that "We were having love and we stopped breathing".

Carnevale says in his ruling that the Court does not ignore "the existence of alleged gender violence", which worries them, but warns: "This does not mean that under this shield is intended to frame an event which has been badyzed – it is diametrically opposed to it ".

"L & # 39; accusation has not been able to prove that Lucia was badually abused in a context of gender-based violence because of the reification of women and with the facilitation of narcotics that would have strengthened a situation of vulnerability and prevented full consent to action. Even less was it proved that Farías wanted or should have been represented as possible by the death of the victim and that even in this case, he was disinterested in this result, "said the magistrate of Mar del Plata.

The judges' decision spawned repudiation in many areas of the community. The Institute of Comparative Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences (INECIP) felt that "the sentence presents a total indifference the demands that international human rights law has for decades posed for the incorporation of the gender perspective into the adjudication of badual crimes ".

Marta Montero, Lucia's mother, is asked: "They did not rape her, they did not kill her, they gave her nothing, and the death of my daughter what, is it a gift?"

But the decision indicates strength in the decision: "Here, there was no physical, psychological, subordination or humiliation, let alone reification."

For INECIP, the reasons given in the judgment are based on the fact that there was consent for the relationship. "The judges of the Court they rely on Lucia's past life -With examples up to 6 months before the event in some cases, we can badume that, in a scene involving adult men, who sell drugs to a person under 16, he there was consent ".

The judges consider that "it is frightful to imagine the death of a minor of 16 years of age resulting from the ingestion of a narcotic and that it could have been provided (painful or free) by the same person with whom he had bad.

"The overwhelming amount of prejudices held during the trial and ratified by the terms of the judgment, make the decision a conviction arbitrary and claim the culture of rape ", insisted INECIP, because they believe that this way the case becomes a judgment against the victim.

The judges, on the other hand, emphasize that the context has given way to speculation. "People of" bad life ", selling drugs, marginal, but that do not make them rapists or murderersunless of course they rape or kill. Which has not been tested. "

For the magistrates, it is "an important fact" that Farías told a friend of Lucia who was going to see the girl and, for this reason, in one of the last paragraphs of the decision, they asked: " What was the reason for being? Message if his intention was to abuse drugs and badually the child?