After many twists and turns, the court finally rejected a recusal request against the judge who is carrying out the trial faced by Jorge Martínez, former coach of the Boca women’s team, accused of sexual abuse. And he confirmed that next Wednesday the 10th the verdict will be known.
“With the request to recuse the judge in the case I felt very sad, I felt very emotionally and physically tired. Because it meant going through a new judicial instance and I felt revictimized“, dice a Clarion Florencia Marcó, Martínez’s complainant.
“Now that they rejected the recusal I feel peace again as when I filed the complaint in court. The defense’s actions demonstrate once again what I went through behind closed doors at the club, he adds. I trust the investigation and the performance of prosecutor Martinez Burgos and I fully trust in justicebecause on March 22, what is happening in our beloved Boca became evident.”
The complaint against Martínez dates back to March 2023. Then, Florencia Marcó, press officer for the club’s women’s soccer team, went to court and said that Martínez harassed and sexually abused her since the beginning of 2022. He also said that all club authorities were aware and that no one had done anything about it.
A year later, on March 22, the trial began. for five hours 14 witnesses testified, of which 11 have a dependency relationship with the club. “They only told lies,” said Andrea Lucangioli, Marcó’s lawyer. She was referring to several members of the Soccer Council, such as Jorge Bermúdez, Marcelo Delgado and Raúl Cascini, who said they were unaware of the abuse while the complainant assured that she herself had informed them of the harassment against her and other players.
The sentencing was scheduled for Monday the 25th, but Martínez’s lawyer, Ángel Romero, presented a challenge against Judge Sergio Paduczak, for alleged irregularities in the process: “He departed from his role by asking countless induced questions to the witnesses, something which is prohibited by the Criminal Procedure Code,” said Romero, who is the lawyer for the conservative Partido Celeste and the anti-abortion association Mas Vida.
The decision on the recusal request was left in the hands of Judge Patricia Cusmanich, of Oral Court No. 22, who summoned both parties to a hearing that took place this Wednesday the 3rd. His lawyer Romero was on his behalf and prosecutor Marcelo Martínez Burgos, from the Oral Prosecutor’s Office No. 22, was on Marcó’s behalf, since neither Marcó nor his lawyer are plaintiffs in the case.
This Thursday The judge rejected Judge Paduczak’s request for recusal. “We are moving forward, we are still on our way. The defense arguments were terrifying, really terrible. It took the prosecutor only a few minutes to present the jurisprudence and the corresponding articles to endorse the legality of the process by Judge Paduczak,” he explained. lawyer Lucangioli Clarion.
This Wednesday, April 10 at 10:30 in Comodoro Py the oral trial will resume. The arguments will be heard and the verdict will be known.
The history
Florencia Marcó is 36 years old and has been working as a press member for Boca Juniors for twelve years (she is now on leave). In 2022 she took charge of women’s football communication. But immediately, she claims, the harassment and abuse by Martínez, then coach of the First Division team, began. He also said that Several players suffered harassment from the coach. He said repeatedly that he reported everything internally; and that no one ever did anything. Tired, she went to court and, just after making her complaint public, her DT was removed from her position.
She claims that no one ever called her from the club to show solidarity with her or ask her how she was doing. And Since he made the complaint and they gave him leave, he has not earned a single peso., unlike Martínez, who was separated from his position but continues to earn money. “They never tried to contact her from the club, they even sent her license by email, they do everything by email,” says the lawyer. They underestimated the situation“.