Mérida, Yucatán, (August 16, 2021).- Since the release of the four Mérida police officers who were accused of qualified homicide committed in a gang and rape against the young man from Veracruz, José Eduardo Ravelo Echevarría, a video is circulating where, apparently, municipal agents are seen to subdue the young man before to be taken to his cell.
The videos have generated doubts and hundreds of comments on social networks, since it is seen that when José Eduardo enters the police facilities he has long pants and when he leaves, he has a bermuda (Short).
Given the inconsistencies, the newspaper sought the version of the mayor Renán Barrera Concha and the director of the Municipal Police, Mario Arturo Romero Escalante, who declined to address the case of the video “because there is a process underway.”
The one who did speak was the agents’ lawyer, David Dorantes Cabrera, who pointed out that the video is one of those that was reproduced at the hearing and stressed that the context of it must be known, since the young man had a self-injurious attitude.
“At the hearing we also had a video where the person (José Eduardo Ravelo) is running between moving cars and a risk is generated towards his person. When a person is like this, the police have the obligation to stop him in order to control him, and take care that he does not injure himself, ” he said.
“This person was beating himself, in the video you can see that he is only beginning to beat himself on the floor. In fact, there was a very important witness who said that, moments before the arrest, this boy was running in the middle of a metal food stall and was hitting his head by himself, ” he said.
The lawyer Dorantes Cabrera also made mention of why the young man appears with pants and then with shorts.
“They are the necessary protocols because if they leave him his pants, he can take them off and hang himself with his pants or injure himself; then, to avoid this circumstance, he has to take off his pants and if he has another garment, he keeps that garment, which is why they remove belts, laces … to prevent him from injuring himself ”.
He also said he did not know who leaked the video, since only the prosecution, the victim’s legal counsel and the defense have a copy of the material.
In spite of everything, he said that the filtering of the videos does not affect the process, since they are already properly visualized. “What is striking is that they are filtered at the moment of non-connection; obviously one of the procedural parties had to have done it ”.
As we reported, Judge Rómulo Antonio Bonilla, after analyzing the videos in which the victim is seen in the municipal jail, during his retirement and on his way, ordered the release of the four municipal police officers as he did not find elements to link them to the process.
The lawyer Dorantes explained that not being involved in the process means that they were immediately released; however, he clarified that the elements can continue to be investigated and that even the prosecution can appeal the resolution.
The defense attorney reported that, since their release, his clients have received threats against their physical integrity.
“The reality is that they have received threats; even their relatives are afraid of the exhibition to which they have been subjected. It is a complicated situation, ”said the lawyer, who ruled out that for the moment his clients are going to report the situation.
“We are waiting for various results to be able to make the most appropriate decision,” he said.
The professional also questioned the way of proceeding of the state prosecutor’s office, “for hiding, denying and not wanting to provide the videos, until a few hours before the hearing so that they cannot be adequately analyzed.”
“This is striking because you realize that the prosecution was aware that these videos benefited the client,” he said.
“Do you think they protect someone or do they just lack preparation to investigate without deficiencies?”
“Several factors come together,” he replied. The omission in the investigation and the social pressure that forced the prosecution to act quickly and not exhaust all lines of investigation.
“This, how does it affect the prosecution of suspects?”
—I was talking about it today, in the sense that if the investigations continue and you find another probable person responsible, the defense of the other probable person responsible will have an easier defense because it can raise a question depending on who really did it if you are accusing to people who did not participate in the event.— Jorge Iván Canul Ek / Megamedia Agenc.
Other tests
On Friday, Judge Rómulo Bonilla confirmed that after a long day of debates the order of non-binding was declared. He explained that the Public Ministry must expand the investigation and collect other evidence data, since the deceased, in his statements, pointed to a police corporation as responsible for what happened to him.
Cops
He also mentioned that although there is no evidence that attributes the crime to any specific person or corporation, the victim’s statement does mention a corporation.
Source: Yucatan a la mano
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