Monday, January 16, 2023 | 10:10 a.m.
The name of Bertoldo Roberto “Polaco” Neumann (42) has different connotations depending on the area in which he is spoken of. In jail he is considered a model prisoner, studious and with impeccable conduct. Outside he is known as a fearsome murderer convicted of the murders of lawyer Guillermo Valdez and IPS night watchman Alfonso Pintos Cardozo.
That is the paradox in which Neumann has been plunged for almost two decades and that blocks the possibility of him accessing the temporary exits, at least for now, despite the fact that he meets the technical requirements for it.
As confirmed by El Territorio with sources from the Provincial Penitentiary Service (SPP), on October 5 the inmate was incorporated into the probationary period, although the same judicial opinion of the Criminal Court One of Posadas denied him the benefit of temporary releases requested by his defense .
The matter will be analyzed again in the middle of this year, when it will be 20 years since his detention.
“The penitentiary regime contemplates the probationary period as an instance in the resocialization of the inmate. It is based on the principle of self-discipline, with different situations, prior to granting temporary leave for 12 or 24 hours. In the case of Neumann, since October he has been on a trial period and, for now, without temporary departures. But he is a model inmate and surely in a while he will have the possibility of leaving, because that is what the regime provides for it, ”they detailed.
During the first years of his sentence, he was housed in the Penal Unit VI of Posadas; Later he was transferred to Eldorado, had a brief stint in Loreto, and then ended up in the Oberá prison, where he has been for fourteen years.
double sentence
While imprisoned, Neumann studied at a distance (dental mechanics and law), a highly valued aspect in prison treatment.
Meanwhile, he is considered one of the inmates with the best behavior, except for an incident that he starred in in 2016 when he injured another inmate in alleged self-defense.
Likewise, beyond the evidence of a high degree of rehabilitation, the double homicide also benefited from the fact that the crimes against him were committed before the reform of the Penal Code of 2004.
It happens that currently in Argentine prisons there are life sentences that must serve 25 or 35 years in prison, depending on the moment they were sentenced.
In the case of Neumann, the homicides of Valdez and Pintos Cardozo were recorded in 2003, before the aforementioned reform, for which he received 25 years in prison. A fortuitous fact that he played in his favor so that, upon serving 20 years of sentence, he can access the transitional exits.
On the other hand, in the middle of last year he had an extraordinary permit to visit his mother who was sick in Posadas, after which he returned to Oberá Penal Unit II.
a single incident
Although the sources consulted acknowledge that Neumann has exemplary conduct in prison, it is also true that at the end of September 2016 he left another inmate, identified as Ricardo Ramón Insaurralde, on the brink of death, whom he brutally beat.
The incident would have been registered in the middle of a search and, beyond the versions that started to run, the truth is that Insaurralde was very badly injured. In defense of him, Neumann stated that he acted in self-defense.
Meanwhile, his rival suffered multiple blows and abrasions on his face and different parts of his body, for which it was necessary to transfer him to the Samic Hospital for rigorous treatment.
Sources from the penitentiary commented that at the time of the incident, Neumann had recently been housed in module B for inmates in the trust phase and they wanted to “mark the court for him.”
After that incident, no problems were reported again where he was involved.
crimes
The murder of Guillermo Valdez is remembered for the viciousness of the murderers, since they skinned his face with a scalpel.
The incident took place on the night of June 19, 2003, when the lawyer was summoned to the office of his ex-wife, the notary public Adriana García, to finish the process of distributing assets and set child support.
Valdez was killed by several shots. They also stabbed him in the chest and abdomen. As if that were not enough, they disfigured him.
Neumann and Jorge “Mosquito” Ramírez (also sentenced to life) loaded the body into Valdez’s truck and took it to the outskirts of Posadas. Then they washed the vehicle and left it on Cabo de Hornos avenue.
For the investigators, the notary García had a sentimental relationship with Neumann and both, together with Ramírez, planned and executed the crime.
At the time of the event, the woman and the victim were separated, so the motive for the crime was never clear. García was sentenced to life and already enjoys temporary releases.
Neumann was arrested at his home two days later. In his car they found the weapon used in the crime: an 11.25 caliber pistol, Colt type, with a silencer.
Later, the experts determined that the same gun also fired the shots that killed the IPS watchman, Alfonso Pintos Cardozo, killed in February 2003, in an act for which Neumann was also sentenced to life imprisonment along with Kevin Escalada.
For the judges, they were the authors of the three shots with which they executed the victim. “Mosquito” Ramírez was acquitted on the benefit of the doubt, although he was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing IPS computers.
