Engineer trapped in 8/1 loses house and crowdfunds to avoid eviction

A civil engineer with a history of cancer who spent seven months in prison for the acts of 8/1 received an eviction order due to late payments on the house, and started an “online crowdfunding” to pay off the debt. According to the court’s decision, the woman and her son have until next Sunday, the 10th, to leave the residence. “But we are fighting to maintain at least part of what we have achieved to date”, he says. Regina Aparecida Modestoof 54 years. “This was our dream house.”

A resident of a high-end residence in Serra da Cantareira, in São Paulo, the woman paid part of the value of the property directly to the owner, but was unable to maintain the payments after her arrest. “I had my office on Avenida Paulista, but I lost clients in those seven months, including two strong contracts with multinationals”, says the woman, who closed her physical company and is now looking for work.

“I serve the industrial, residential, commercial and executive areas”, says the master in tunnel engineering and cogeneration who even worked as project manager for the Brazil Bolivia Gas Pipeline, between 1999 and 2002. “And I can leave to work here in São Paulo and the region within the hours that the electronic ankle monitor allows.”

According to her, her life has “turned upside down” since she was arrested inside the Senate on January 8th. “I have always been politically active, and I left home on Friday (6), by car, to participate in another peaceful demonstration by the conservative right”, says Regina, who is Christian, with a degree in Theology from Mackenzie University. “So, I went to the Esplanada dos Ministérios on Sunday to pray.”

However, she says that, while she was on the Senate ramp at around 3:40 pm, they started dropping bombs on the protesters and opened one of the building’s doors. “A man in uniform said ‘come in, come in, come and take shelter from the bombs’, and I went”, says the engineer, who claims to have collected papers from the floor and talked to police officers inside the building.

“So much so that Regina is one of the few people recognized by the police during the investigation hearing, and they stated that her conduct was peaceful within the Senate plenary”, points out lawyer Hélio Junior. “She did not commit any act of vandalism, but she spent months in prison,” he added.

According to Regina, she was taken to a corridor in the Senate, where the treatment changed completely and the protesters were forced to stay more than 24 hours of sitting without food. “They treated us like bandits, and I was coerced at gunpoint into giving my report and signing a document,” she says. “Only after I signed, they brought a lunch box with rice, beans and picanha, and they laughed while we ate.”

The woman was taken to the Legal Medical Institute (IML) for a criminal examination and went to the Federal District Women’s Penitentiary, Colmeia. “I was not arrested, and I was imprisoned for seven months, suffering from various health problems.”

History of uterine, gallbladder and stomach cancer

After facing cancer in the uterus, in 2011, and also in the gallbladder and stomach, in 2016, Regina needs to follow an essential restrictive diet to avoid complications, but she was unable to do this in the penitentiary. “It even said ‘diet’ on my lunch box, but the food was sour, with dirt and other things that you can’t even talk about, and we had to eat to avoid going hungry”, points out the woman, who started to feel sick, evacuating blood for months in prison. “I ended up staying 10 I was hospitalized for days, and I almost died.”

In addition to her health problems, she reports that she did not receive hygiene items, spending days without soap, towels or underwear to wear. “At my custody hearing, for example, I had to put a borrowed pad on my breasts to be seen by the judge,” she says. “And I only got a toothbrush four months after prison, so I’m out of teeth and I need root canals.”

Psychological trauma after strip search: “it felt like a concentration camp”

However, despite all the physical suffering, she guarantees that the psychological trauma is the most difficult. “They said that we deserved ‘a 12 gauge in the face’, they called us ‘terrorists’, ‘scammers’ and threatened to send us to solitary confinement”, laments the engineer, as she became emotional remembering a general search in which all the prisoners on January 8, they were naked in a prison corridor. “It was my son’s birthday, and it really affected me.”

According to her, all the women were taken to the courtyard, where police officers looked at their belongings and confiscated items of clothing or hygiene items in quantities “more than allowed per person”. Then, they went to a corridor closed with tarpaulins and blankets, where they were forced to undress. “We all took off all our clothes for the inspection, and it was traumatizing because it looked like a concentration camp. It was horrible,” she recalls. “As soon as I got to my cell, I burst into tears because it was so humiliating.”

According to the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration of the Federal District (Seape), “the personal and material search of the person in custody is carried out upon entry or at any time when the police officer is to carry out some procedure within the prison. prisons.”

In a note sent to People’s Gazettethe secretariat informs that the procedure “is carried out in an appropriate location, with a female police officer, respecting the rights of the constitutional matrix of human rights” and has the objective of “guaranteeing the physical integrity of the re-educated person and the police officer, in addition to maintaining order , security and discipline, as described in the DF Penitentiary Code”.

Provisional release and financial difficulties

During her seven months in prison, Regina had two chances to leave prison, both of which were denied by the STF. “The first was at the custody hearing itself, because the judge gave an opinion on provisional release, and then he had the opinion of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) due to my health”, she reports.

However, provisional freedom was only granted on August 9th. “In all, I lost 25 kilos in prison, because I entered weighing 82kg and left weighing 57kg, I also had new tests when I left and there is a suspicion that the cancer has returned”, says the engineer, currently treated in the Unified Health System (SUS).

Furthermore, she is trying to pay off the house debt to avoid being evicted next Sunday (10), and received support from federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) on social media. “Regina is an engineer and pastor who dedicated years of her life serving other people and who spent seven months in jail”, states the deputy from Minas Gerais in his stories on Instagram. “And I don’t do this as a politician, but as a human being, knowing that I could be a mother, a grandmother or an aunt”, he continues.

According to Regina, the owner of the property filed a lawsuit to repossess the house, and the judge accepted the request. “I have no other place to live and I have restrictions on my name, so I ask for help and opportunities”, she requests. “So, I believe that I will rise again with faith, hope and persistence”, she concludes, mentioning that her contacts are on the website of her company, ICRM Engenharia.