Friday May 5, 2023 | 4:00 p.m.
Four policewomen who work at the Alba Posse police station denounced the head of the aforementioned unit, chief officer José Luis K., and the head of the Regional Unit XI of Aristóbulo del Valle, chief commissioner Marcelo C. for sexual and labor harassment.
The judicial presentation was filed on April 17 before the prosecutor of Instruction One of Posadas, Amalia Spinnato. The complainants received advice from Line 137 for attention to women in situations of violence.
Meanwhile, for reasons of jurisdiction, on April 24 the file was forwarded to Oberá Investigating Court Two, in charge of Horacio Alarcón, who will be in charge of investigating the alleged facts.
The Territory agreed to the four complaints filed in court, while the Misiones Police Headquarters is carrying out the investigation of an internal summary.
In the accusation against Commissioner Marcelo C., head of the UR XI, MC (27) explained that “everything started three years ago and lasted until now with insinuations, then responding to WhatsApp states in which he called me beautiful and responded by taking screenshots of my uniformed photos and made circles on my breasts. Then he invited me to the town of Aristóbulo, to the Regional Unit and outside of it, and he also told me that he would come to the operations a lot just to see me”.
The official clarified that she never agreed to the alleged insinuations, which gave rise to workplace harassment and sanctions.
“When I asked for my transfer to be able to breastfeed my baby who was just born, they did not answer me and they sanctioned me with ten days,” he stated.
Adjust and apologize
In the complaint before the prosecutor Spinnato, it is specified that MC burst into tears when recounting the troubles she suffered while pregnant for seven or eight months.
In another paragraph it is mentioned that on April 13 there was a meeting of more than three hours in Alba Posse where they discussed the alleged sexual and labor harassment suffered by her and her colleagues, on which occasion the head of the UR XI would have recriminated
“(…) he stated that we were the weakest link in the institution and that we had to adapt to the Police, that we have to denounce the thieves, not the heads of the institution, since by doing so we were not harming only the bosses, but that we stained the uniform and the prestige of the institution and that we had to have a sense of belonging to the Police ”, reads the complaint of April 17.
And he added that the aforementioned official “told us that what happened in the meeting should be left there and that it had to be resolved by apologizing and that it had to be a before and after.”
Faced with the serious accusation, the chief commissioner would have questioned his work based on the hours that the complainant works.
“When I complained, Marcelo C. stated ‘he works four hours and complains’, since my schedule was six hours from Monday to Saturday because it was included in article 9 of adequate tasks, since I have a herniated disc caused by depending on the service. And I stated that no matter how many hours we work, we don’t have to be going through this situation. I am very afraid of C., for which I urgently request a ban on approaching, ”he stressed.
In the complaint, he attached medical reports and audio recordings of the meeting to which he referred.
“Out of place messages”
For his part, GS (29) denounced the head of the UR XI for sexual harassment and harassment.
“In 2021 I submitted a note requesting the transfer to May 25 for family reasons, my boss raised the note to Commissioner Marcelo C., who from that moment began to send me WhatsApp messages that were out of place, harassing messages , requesting that I appear in his office to talk about “the transfer” and also invited me to have dinner and go out for a drink, remarking that I had to agree to everything he asked of me in order to talk about his “transfer.” Since I did not agree to any proposal and I blocked him from WhatsApp, several weeks passed and I received a call from C. saying that he had heard that I had made comments that I had privileges to maintain a relationship with him, for which he was having problems with his partner and threatened me with taking action,” is quoted in the complaint.
The police clarified that he never had privileges and that his former boss saw the messages sent by Marcelo C., for which he offered him as a witness.
He also regretted that due to the entire situation he suffered he almost lost his job and separated from who his partner was.
fear of retaliation
In turn, AP (30) specified that in 2019 he began an informal relationship with the main officer José Luis K.
“We worked in different departments and when I told him that I wanted to end the relationship, since we both became a couple, the workplace harassment began. He persecuted me, he threatened me that he was going to get my transfer ”, she indicated in court.
In 2022, the officer took over as head of the Santa Rita Radioelectric Command and transferred the complainant to the Alba Posse police station, where he is currently serving.
“This year he took office at the same police station and the persecution began. That I am rude, that I challenge myself, all unjustifiably since I always fulfilled my obligations and I had no problems of any kind, “he said.
In this context, he added that “the week before (April 17) I asked to speak with him in his office and I asked him when I disrespected him, why he harassed and mistreated me, to which he told me that if she was with him again she could reverse the situation. Since we both have families, I told her that this was not going to happen and that she was already tired, that she preferred to ask for leave before continuing to work that way. In that he told me that before I ask for the discharge he was going to run me out of the Regional Unit and that I remember that everything he asks for, the head of that Regional Unit endorses it as it already happened with seven transferred compañeros and compañeras”.
In the same complaint, the woman requested the restriction of approach for fear of reprisals.
“He said that I was useless, that I was useless”
