They denounced a prosecutor for not having made progress in a cause of abuse: the victim was again raped by the same aggressor

A serious institutional case was unveiled this Friday in Santa Fe, where San Lorenzo prosecutor Melisa Serena was reported to the provincial legislature for failing to make progress on a complaint of rape of a 15-year-old girl who, two months later, was abused again by the same aggressor . The suspect, Walter Elias Almaraz, is currently accused and imprisoned, but because of the actions of another prosecutor, Leandro Lucente.

The complaint against Prosecutor Serena was filed this Wednesday at 8.30 to the Agreements Committee of the Santa Fe Legislature. All the actions taken in the context of an investigation into sexual abuse involving a teenage girl who was attacked by her cousin twice, in July and November of last year, are described there.

The full content of the imputative hearing held on November 16 last year, when Prosecutor Leandro Lucente accused Walter Almaraz of the second abuse, is attached to the presentation. This attack, according to the reconstruction carried out by Lucente, occurred in the vicinity of a supermarket in the municipality of Carrizales, located in the department of Iriondo.

According to the allegation, the victim was approached by Almaraz in the early morning of November 10, when the teenager was returning home on foot. The prosecutor emphasized that the assailant got off a motorcycle, grabbed her hair, dragged her into a corridor, kissed her and groped her.

However, Lucente recalled that it was the second episode he had committed against his cousin. He said that in mid-July last year, Almaraz attacked the young woman at the Carrizales train station, known as Clarke Station, when she was returning home.

The first abuse was reported on August 12, almost a month later. The presentation was made by the deputy director of the Victor J. Vilela Carolina Binner Children's Hospital, since the victim was hospitalized as a result of the rape from August 1 to August 25 of that month.

In the first rape, according to the victim's account in Cámara Gesell, her cousin attacked her in the back, taking her with force from one arm. As the teenager quickly recognized him, Almaraz covered her mouth and began kissing her, groping her until he then hit her on the head to make her kneel, at which point he forced her to perform oral sex under the threat that otherwise he would “burn her little brothers”.

The trial judge Eugenio Romanini, when issuing 90 days of effective pre-trial detention for Almaraz, concluded: “The measures could have been carried out earlier and other situations could have been avoided. I will arrange for the head of the unit of the San Lorenzo Public Prosecutor's Office to be informed of what has been discussed at this hearing regarding these cases that have been brought forward by two different prosecutors.”

Second investigation to the same prosecutor

This is the second impact information about Melisa Serena. Yesterday, the Santa Fe Legislature opened disciplinary proceedings against her in which she could be fined or suspended from office. It is because he held dialogues via Telegram in February 2020 with Nelson “Coqui” Ugolini, a court employee who is about to go to trial as an alleged member of a corruption network linked to the underground game. For this reason, she has been charged since 7 April last year for failure to fulfill the duties of public servant and failure to prosecute criminal offences.

In December 2020, prosecutors Matías Eder y and Luis Schiappa Pietr a had ordered the hijacking of Melisa Serena's iPhone, who refused to provide her password or unlock pattern for the device to facilitate access for the investigation.

In those conversations via Telegram, Ugolini told the prosecutor: “Be stupid and stretch your ear at the San Lorenzo prosecutor's office. I have just received police information that they want to control two important variants. One, clandestine game; two, dry ports.” That comment was made in the context of the recent appointment of Marcelo Sain as Minister of Security.

“These are songs that have never been played in San Lorenzo despite the fact that [...] And what does the jerk (sic) of (Marcelo, former minister) Sain want? That we start investigating these causes to go against Traferri? ”, Serena told Ugolini. Armando Traferri, to whom he alluded, is a historic senator from the San Lorenzo department of the Justicialist Party, who could not be charged by prosecutors Edery and Schiappa Pietra for being part of that alleged corruption network linked to clandestine gambling, since he enjoys immunity parliamentary.

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