Marymount case: 942 interceptions of Mauricio Zambrano declared illegal

On March 10, Francisco Barbosa, Bogotá's guarantee control judge released Mauricio Zambrano, a man accused of sexually harassing and abusing at least 20 students while teaching physical education and football at Marymount school.

Although the teacher did not accept charges, he continues to be linked to the case. Another judge declared illegal the interceptions of her cell phone and that of María Ángela Torres, the rector of that establishment until a few weeks ago.

According to the newspaper El Tiempo, these two decisions have set off the alarm about the case, even more so if you take into account that at least a dozen complaints that point to Professor Zambrano of abusing students of the institution.

Prosecutor Barbosa said that, in 30 days, the first results will be known on the 154 cases filed by the District, including that of Marymount.

Prosecutor 224, attached to the Usaquén Immediate Reaction Unit, requested to legalize 942 wiretaps to Zambrano. The purpose of this technical monitoring was to collect evidentiary material and physical evidence for the indignation, as the Colombian newspaper was able to clarify.

With the above, what was sought were possible accomplices to the facts and the silence that occurred around the abuse, in addition, to establish whether there was a modus operandi.

Although the prosecutor supported her request, they were not enough to achieve the legalization of the interceptions. The first to oppose was Zambrano's lawyer, Jairo Porras, who called it inappropriate to invade the privacy of those intercepted. According to the defender, since March 2, before the interceptions began, Zambrano had already come forward to hand over contact, work and address details of his family.

The judge in the case was emphatic that there was a lack of demonstration capacity of the Attorney General's Office to uphold the legality of interceptions.

He even assured that there were no reasons to keep the interceptions and that the justification remained at the level of speculation, especially in relation to the former rector, who has not been called a co-author, participant, intervener or accomplice in the facts subject of investigation. The prosecutor in the case did not appeal the decision.

“I have full confidence in the Prosecutor's Office and I hope that they will allocate the best human and technical resources for this case,” said criminal lawyer Fabio Humar, a lawyer for the family of one of the former students who claims to have been abused, and he refrained from talking about the hearing to the newspaper El Tiempo.

After several complaints were heard from students at Marymount School in Bogotá about alleged cases of sexual harassment and abuse by a physical education teacher, Noticias RCN revealed the Legal Medicine ruling in which it was stated that the now former professor Mauricio Zambrano did sexually abuse a girl under 14 years old.

In the four-page document of the Prosecutor's Office, known by the Bogotá news, Medicina Legal stated that the young student did not consent to sexual activity with the accused.

“She was placed in a state of mind of inferiority vis-à-vis the adult, which prevented her from knowing, discerning and fully discriminating against the sexual connotation of events (...) therefore, the minor was unable to understand or consent to sexual activity with the person reported,” the document known to RCN News reads.

In this regard, the opinion of Legal Medicine indicated that, due to the sexual abuse of which the minor was the victim, she currently suffers from psychological effects in addition to an “injury to free development and sexual formation”, as reported by the same media.

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