STJ unanimously condemns judge and majority suspends sentence – 03/03/2023 – Frederico Vasconcelos

The Superior Court of Justice unanimously condemned, last Wednesday (1st), the judge Luís Cesar de Paula Espíndola, from the TJ of Paraná, to 4 months and 20 days of detention, in an open initial regime, for the commission of the crime of bodily injury.

By majority, the Special Court decided for the conditional suspension of the sentence, providing services to the community and prohibiting one from approaching one of the victims.

The judge was accused of causing injuries to his sister, Maria Lucia de Paula Espíndola, and of hitting his mother, Teresa de Jesus Rodrigues de Paula Espíndola.

The rapporteur, Minister Paulo de Tarso Sanseverino, understood that the crimes were committed with violence and that Espíndola revealed aggressive behavior “incompatible with the serenity and decorum of the position of magistrate”.

Sanseverino had voted for the removal of the functions of judge until the final decision (when there is no further appeal). By majority, however, the ministers revoked the removal, authorizing the immediate return to the duties of judge, according to the dissenting vote of Minister João Otávio de Noronha.

“What harms his return now? It seems to me that it’s better that he comes back soon. Leave is not a penalty. Better that he gets paid by working”, said Noronha.

Humberto Martins was also in favor of the judge’s immediate return to court activities. “He has been away for quite some time now. The removal is a highly drastic measure.”

The complaint, based on the Maria da Penha Law, was received unanimously in 2018.

Reporter waives recordings

Sanseverino, said that the disagreements were evident and proven by the testimonies of several witnesses. The rapporteur considered that “there is sufficient proof of authorship”.

The report of the bodily examinations confirms that there were several injuries “caused by a blunt instrument”, he said.

The accusations against the judge were disclosed based on transcripts of recordings made by Maria Lúcia. These recordings provoked disagreements.

Sanseverino recorded in his vote that no expert examinations were carried out on the magistrate’s sister’s cell phone. He considered that the audio expertise “would not contribute to the elucidation of the event”. He also stated that the “mother’s statement should be analyzed with great caution”.

“To maintain consistency, such evidence will not be used,” he said.

At the beginning of the trial, the deputy attorney general of the Republic Carlos Frederico Santos said that the magistrate “acted with the will to cause injuries to the victims”.

Testimonials from witnesses confirmed the aggressive behavior of the judge, who had previously threatened a driver with a revolver.

Maria Lúcia acted as assistant to the prosecution. She was represented by lawyer Alessandro Silvério.

The lawyer mentioned the judge’s two strategies: delaying the criminal action, so much so that he was prosecuted in absentia, and claiming that he was the victim of a plot.

The rapporteur recorded in an order “the procrastinating conduct” of the magistrate, with “successive alterations and expansions of the set of constituted defenders”.

judge’s defense

Lawyer Renato Cardoso de Almeida Andrade provided oral support in defense of Judge Luís Cesar de Paula Espíndola.

He said that until today he is his mother’s guardian, and that he takes care of her survival. “Maria Lúcia never took any steps to remove her brother’s guardianship”.

He said that the judge’s sister recognized, in a court agreement, the practice of appropriating R$ 180,000 that were deposited in her father’s account (money that would have been used to buy titles from a club), and that she reacted because of the opening of a police investigation on the charge of missing jewelry.

Andrade emphasized that the complaint itself admitted that the mother had been accidentally hit, and that she never attended the Legal Medical Institute.

He cited a previous vote by Minister Raul Araújo, who considered the recordings null because they had not been submitted to expertise or to the contradictory.

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