The music teacher Lucas Puig, sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual abuse in the San Benjamín de Los Hornos kindergarten, a case that dates back to 2009, declared today at the hearing to review the sentence requested by his defense, which takes place in Room V of the Court of Cassation of La Plata.
The teacher, sentenced in the first instance, stated that “I am Lucas Manuel Puig, I am not an abuser.” In relation to the boys in the complaint against him, he maintained that “they are victims of this situation that we have been in for 13 years.” “The minors are also victims of this process but not of any type of criminal act that has been carried out,” he said in Cassation.
Before the Court, he stated that “I am not a lawyer. I am a music teacher. And this process, after this surprising complaint, gradually turned me into a pseudo-lawyer. And I do not like that because I am a music teacher. I used to leave my house on my bicycle every day with my guitar until I could buy the car, and not with a backpack full of procedural codes, of jurisprudence”.
“I have four children, I am not a degenerate. I have brothers, a friend, a girlfriend, I play soccer. I am not a depraved as they have called me. I have always been lawful in these 13 years, I have participated in all the procedural acts except one ” , slipped
“I love being a teacher. In a class a student asked me: ‘Teacher, what do you work for’ and that’s because I saw my vocation,” he said. “I worked in many educational institutions until they denounced me.”
“And in the second trial, in the second time that the state attacked me, I wonder who the teacher was in 2009, because it was not Silvina Díaz. And they accused Silvina. And she was not there. And Andrea, who She was the teacher of 2009, I did not charge her with it,” she questioned. “My lawyers didn’t expect me to talk about this. But they made me a lawyer with all the respect that lawyers deserve,” she said.
Puig stated: “I declared everything before the prosecutor Virginia Bravo, and I defended myself for 13 years. The sexual abuse did not exist and must be proven with evidence.” “And I continue to trust justice despite the things that my lawyers explained. They made me a procedural object, a victim of institutional violence. Despite all that, I always presented myself,” she added.
“We all experience that. Even my family. And despite the things I saw, I trust justice. My lawyers were given 45 minutes to read a 380-page sentence. I am very sorry for the families who are going through this as they suffer my family, because the event did not happen and I am innocent,” he declared.
Before the hearing, teachers from the San Benjamín School and other institutions came to the judicial building of 43 between 12 and 13 to support the music teacher in the framework of a strike day.
THE AUDIENCE
The defense lawyers believed it was important to be able to verbalize all these issues that were mentioned in the presentation, taking into account issues such as “the attitude of the Court that there has been a judicial ambush, the treatment regarding the evidence, the attitude regarding the Court of sustaining violence unusual institutional, not only with prosecution and defense witnesses -those of the defense- limiting us, in addition, in how much time we would have to argue, interrupting us during an interrogation, which is very serious because what we draw as defense lawyers It is a question and answer strategy to be able to cross-examine and the Judge can assess that situation. On several occasions we were cut more than fifteen times. This is why we mentioned, at this hearing, the minutes in which this happens in the audio recording of the trial. This situation clearly demarcated, among other things, a prejudgment and a subjectivity typical of a body that by nature has to be impartial “; This was stated by Gastón Nicocia to El Día at the end of the hearing.
The defense lawyers emphasized all the irregularities that occurred during the process and especially during the production of the evidence, but fundamentally they stressed that “one of the things that could not be explained was why the effects, which were evidence, they had been without chain of custody, opened (…) and delivered as if they were a box of sandwiches” and added that “the acts to be punishable must have a real existence”
In this regard, the Prosecutor Alejandra Marcela Moretti answered each of the grievances presented by the defendant’s defense -eight in total- and stated that she considered that “the grievance was insufficient, given that everything stated by the defendants was answered by Court No. ° 1 and duly founding.” And he asked the Judges on several occasions to “listen to the audios of the statements of the minor victims because although there is no video where their emotions can be seen, they are heard crying on several occasions and this clearly describes the facts and the accusation directly against Lucas Puig”.
At the end of her presentation, Dr. Moretti made it clear that she rejects all the grievances presented and concluded by saying that “negative facts must be credited with positive facts, and this is credited based on the truth. In this case, the non-existence of the fact is not proven, as she mentions in the appeal and this hearing.
When it was the turn of the lawyers representing the victim, including Dr. Martin Volpi, they declared that they “adhere to everything stated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. No concrete and reasoned criticism of what was stated by the Oral Tribunal was heard at this hearing. Therefore, I am not going to waste time in answering the word of the defense. I request the dismissal of all grievances.”
The Judges of Room V of the Court of Criminal Cassation allowed the public to enter in order to witness the hearing, as well as the participation as listeners of the “amicus curiae” the Criminal Thought Association and the Innocence Project organization Argentina. At the end of the day, relatives of the victims expressed their dissatisfaction with the music teacher Lucas Puig and shouted, “My son didn’t come to avoid ca… punching, rapist, I’m looking at you… you’re going to remember my son’s eyes all your life” were some of the voices that were heard.
AS FOLLOWS
After the hearing, before the Court of Criminal Cassation, the Prosecutor Alejandra Marcela Moretti presented what is called a “Memorial” (which is a written response), in addition to what was expressed orally in court, against the defense appeal. Since she did so after the end of the match, the defense must be notified so that they can answer the “Memorial” within ten calendar days.
The case continues to be under study by the Judges of Room V of the Court of Criminal Cassation. It had been filed there in November 2022, so the Court has a period of six months to answer; date that would be fulfilled in the last days of the current month.
Otherwise, the Chamber could have an extension of up to six more months to resolve; having a pronouncement just for the month of November. This does not mean that the Court cannot resolve the request beforehand. However, after the response of the “Memorial”, which must be carried out by Lucas Puig’s defense lawyers, the sentence could be announced at any time.
