‘He committed and paid’, says lawyer who defended Cuca – 04/29/2023 – Sport

Lawyer Luiz Carlos Silveira Martins, known as Cacalo, classifies as “achaque” the treatment given to Cuca by the condemnation suffered by the current coach and former player of Grêmio, in 1987.

“I’m not defending or accusing anyone in the process, Justice has already decided, but Cuca can’t work anymore. He committed and paid. , says Cacalus to Sheet.

“Now Cuca can no longer work because the girls from Corinthians, the girls from I don’t know who, damn it… Everyone who goes on with their lives, let the guy work. He didn’t run away, he was judged. Does a guy have to have his life messed up forever by a mistake?”

Cacalo was Grêmio’s legal vice-president when Cuca and three other players from the club were arrested in Switzerland, in July 1987, accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl.

He traveled to the country to defend them and obtained the release of the players a month later. Cuca, Henrique Etges, Fernando Castoldi and Eduardo Hamester paid bail, returned to Brazil and, in 1989, were tried and convicted in Switzerland.

Today, he says he considers the repercussions that the case has had since Cuca was hired as coach by Corinthians on April 20 completely unreasonable —under intense pressure from the fans, the coach left the position a week later.

When recalling the period in which he was in Switzerland defending the athletes, the lawyer says that it is necessary to understand that the crime of sexual harassment had another legal classification in the European country and cannot be confused with the current understanding of rape in Brazil.

“Times have changed, it’s been 37 years. I can’t even tell you what it would be like today, but it was a very different situation at the time”, he says.

“Fortunately, we had a favorable result, because the prosecution’s request was a much higher sentence. They were convicted not of rape.”

He considers that the coach committed a lapse of memory when speaking about having been judged in absentia. According to the lawyer, the process went through the normal procedure, with monitoring by the legal department of Grêmio.

Cuca was sentenced to 15 months in prison for the crimes of coercion and sexual intercourse with a minor and payment of US$ 8,000 (R$ 40,000 in current values), the same sentence applied to Henrique and Eduardo. Fernando was considered only an accomplice to the act and sentenced to three months in prison, with a fine set at US$ 4,000 (R$ 20,000 at today’s exchange rate).

Cuca did not go to Switzerland to defend himself or to serve the sentence stipulated for the crime, which he prescribed. The case had repercussions, but cooled down, it was not a major obstacle to the athlete’s career as a midfielder and, until recently, it did not interfere with his career as a coach. It was only in recent years, in the wake of changes in society, that the episode has reappeared.

Upon being presented in what turned out to be a quick passage ahead of Corinthians, the coach denied the accusations and said that he was the victim of a lynching.

“I’m not guilty of anything. I’m innocent. I have a clear conscience, I sleep peacefully. I’m a decent person, above all. My flag has always been correction,” he said.

The website Globoesporte.com revealed, based on an excerpt from the 1,023-page process kept in the archives of the canton of Bern, capital of Switzerland, that there was Cuca’s semen in the body of the 13-year-old teenager who was the victim of the sexual crime that took place in 1987.

Last Tuesday (25), the Swiss Willi Egloff, the lawyer who represented the victim at the time, told UOL that “the girl recognized him as one of the rapists”. The statement contradicts Cuca’s version, who used as an argument for his innocence the alleged fact that the victim did not name him as one of the aggressors.