Without an answer yet for the 79 victims who had their motorcycle kidnapped at the 27th Police Station in the Marechal neighborhood, the judge of Control No. 2 Laura Baralle confirmed the elevation to trial for three police officers responsible for the fire that consumed all the vehicles.
The event occurred at noon on October 15, 2018 when the officers of the police station located at Cayetano Silva 1050 decided to have a barbecue. According to the accusation of the prosecutor Lourdes Quagliatti, one of them, in agreement with two others, began to light the fire to make the coals and then roast meat, but he did it next to the motorcycle warehouse that was sheltered in that large property, next to the fresh air. Without due precaution, due to the proximity and because most of the motorcycles had fuel in their tanks, the flames spread towards some motorcycles, finally spreading and burning 79 of those vehicles.
This is how District 2 Prosecutor, Turn 1, Lourdes Quagliatti, describes it, who on Tuesday brought the case to trial for the responsibilities of an officer and two non-commissioned officers of that police station in the city of Córdoba.
Those summoned to trial are the main officer Lucas Sebastián Bazán (38), 1st Corporal Iohana Estefanía Marchisio (32) and 1st Corporal Miguel Ángel Bellesi (34).
To all three, the prosecutor adjudicates the crime of “violation of the duties of a public official”, adding to Bellesi that of “culpable arson” for having been the one who lit the fire.
Prosecutor Quagliatti points out in the court order that “Bellesi lit a fire -with the consent of Bazán and Marchisio-, spreading it to the private motor vehicles that were sheltered there” and adds that this caused total or partial destruction of 79 motorcycles.
The file contains many burned motorcycles, of various models and brands. In addition to the national or lower value ones, such as Guerrero, Gilera, Apia, there are other high-end vehicles, such as Honda, Suzuki or Yamaha.
About 79 victims, the lawyer Carlos Nayi, who represents 25 of them, acts as plaintiff in the case.
Opposition appeal
The uniformed officers opposed the elevation to Quagliatti’s trial, last May, and the file passed into the hands of Judge Baralle, who at the beginning of this week finished analyzing the appeal and decided to reject it.
The Control judge maintains that “a fire was lit in a space intended for the protection of kidnapped elements (specifically, motorcycles) and a short distance from them, which in turn might contain traces of fuel in their deposits.”
Among the elements cited by the magistrate, she argues that “in addition, (the police officers) did not have suitable and safe elements to carry out this task, because as already indicated there was no barbecue built for that purpose, but rather a Sheet metal on a wooden table (an element that easily catches fire and consumes)”.
The judge understands that the case must go to trial and for this reason, she fully confirms what the prosecutor Quagliatti has done and orders that the file be passed on so that a crime chamber can be drawn to hold the debate.