Judge may have violated at least 6 disciplinary rules – 05/23/2023 – Power

When investigating the case of the alleged telephone call from Judge Eduardo Appio to the son of former Lava Jato rapporteur Marcelo Malucelli, the regional magistrate of the Federal Justice of the 4th Region, Cândido Alfredo Silva Leal Júnior, indicated that the judge of first instance may have violated the least six norms provided for in the Code of Ethics for the Judiciary and in the law that regulates the performance of judges.

The inspector recalled that the facts will still be investigated through a disciplinary administrative process, with defense and prior manifestation of the judge, but anticipates that it was possible to identify some violations.

According to Leal Júnior, when making a call using a blocked identifier and pretending to be a third person (a server that does not exist, from the health area of ​​Justice), Judge Appio, responsible for Lava Jato in Paraná, would be violating a section of the law in which the magistrate has a duty to “maintain irreproachable conduct in public and private life”.

The provisional removal order against Appio was issued by the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region) on Monday (22), in the midst of an investigation initiated from the recording of a phone call to Marcelo Malucelli’s son.

The material was sent to the Federal Police, which has already informed that the expert report “strongly supports the hypothesis” that the voice belongs to Judge Appio.

In the recorded phone call, which took place in April, the caller apparently tries to confirm the son’s bond with Marcelo Malucelli. He also asks at the end: “Are you sure you haven’t been up to anything?”, In what was interpreted as a possible threat.

Judge Appio’s alleged conduct would also violate Articles 16 and 10 of the Code of Ethics for the Judiciary, according to the court’s preliminary findings. The first says that the magistrate “must behave in private life in such a way as to dignify the function”. Article 10 says that “the performance of the magistrate must be transparent”.

Still within the Code of Ethics of the National Judiciary, the magistrate also indicates violation of article 37, which does not allow “procedure incompatible with the dignity, honor and decorum of his functions”, and of article 4, which requires the magistrate to behave “ethically independent”, that “does not interfere, in any way, in the judicial performance of another colleague”.

Finally, by questioning another person about the possibility of “having done something wrong”, the magistrate may have offended the “duty of urbanity”, provided for in another section of article 35 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary.

Leal Júnior states that the norm “is not strictly addressed only to the other characters in the process, but reaches all those who work in the process and with whom the magistrate relates – outside and inside the process (which includes , by the way, the judge-rapporteur for partial correction, noting, in any case, that the son of the judge is a lawyer)”.

Former rapporteur Marcelo Malucelli left the Lava Jato cases in April after being criticized for his son’s relationship with the current senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR).

Malucelli’s son, lawyer João Eduardo Barreto Malucelli, is a partner of senator and federal deputy Rosangela Moro (União Brasil-SP) at the Wolff Moro Sociedade de Advocacia office.

In addition, João Eduardo is the boyfriend of the daughter of the couple of parliamentarians.