L-Ghent’s defense lawyer resigned: how the case continues

“I report that I am no longer exercising the defense of Mr. Elián Valenzuela”Cipolla wrote in a story on his Instagram account to formally announce that he was leaving office.

Although until this morning no one had yet signed as a new defender, judicial sources told the Télam agency that one of L-Gante’s lawyers could be the criminal John Paul Merlo.

Valenzuela continues to be detained in the cells of the Departmental Investigation Delegation (DDI) of Quilmes, in Bernal, waiting for the prosecutor in the case to define whether to request preventive detention in the case.

On Wednesday, the cumbia 420 singer suffered a judicial setback when the judge of Guarantees 2 of Moreno-General Rodríguez, gabriel castrorejected a proposal to cease the detention that Cipolla had made after the appearance of a video in which one of the victims is supposedly observed getting into Valenzuela’s car and it is not seen that he is threatened with a weapon.

In his presentation, Cipolla stated that in the film record the complainant, Gastón Torres, a neighbor of the singer’s family, got into the BMW van that Valenzuela was driving “in the context of a discussion in which there are clearly no signs of fear for part of none of those present”.

However, Judge Castro considered in his resolution – to which Télam agreed – that “the witnesses mentioned that the defendant, most of the time, had the weapon between his legs, inside the car, so clearly the same cannot be visualized in a video that would not comprise the entirety of the scene”.

“Beyond the aforementioned recording, it is of vital importance, in my opinion, what happened according to the victims’ account when they refer to the statements made by the accused inside the vehicle during the time in which ‘prima facie’ were held against their will, (…) would determine the configuration of the crimes against Valenzuela”, says the magistrate.

“The introduction of the new element of the charge in no way modifies the illegal materiality and criminal responsibility of the detainee, but rather puts him in circumstances of time, manner and place,” Castro concluded, understanding that the video in no way contradicts the version of the complainant.

The judge rejected the defense proposal and agreed with the prosecutor in the case, Raúl Villalba, in charge of the Functional Instruction Unit (UFI) 9 of Moreno-General Rodríguez, who ruled that Valenzuela should remain detained as the author of “illegitimate deprivation of liberty, in an ideal contest with coercive threats aggravated by the use of weapons and by be perpetuated against a member of the public power”; “illegitimate deprivation of liberty in an ideal contest with coercive threats aggravated by the use of a weapon”; and “simple possession of narcotic drugs as author.”

The complaint that led to the singer’s arrest was made on May 27 by Torres, a neighbor of the Valenzuela family, who lives in the Bicentenario neighborhood of General Rodríguez, in the western suburbs.