Dr. Pinto testified this Wednesday in the trial for the alleged hiring of the former commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo by the businessman López Madrid to harass her. More than a decade later, the dermatologist has been able to give her version of the events in a trial marked by the statement of the main defendant on the first day of the oral hearing.
Sitting in front of the court, and with her back to the camera to prevent her face from being recorded, the complainant has defended that she was the victim of harassment that lasted for months and for which she was attacked, with her youngest son as a witness. Pinto has stated that he met Lopez Madrid In April 2012, shortly after, in the summer of this year, he began to notice that the businessman’s communications were somewhat “inappropriate.”
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Since then, as he has defended in court, the calls received from the businessman began to be frequent, as did the visits to his office. “If I didn’t answer the calls, he appeared in my office. He appeared continuously for a week,” the witness said.
The dermatologist has declared, on the verge of tears, that was “forced” to maintain a communication that she did not want and, for fear of reprisals, she began to invent that she had to travel outside of Spain on weekends and even that she suffered from breast cancer so that the businessman would stop contacting her.
Among other measures, the doctor has assured the court that she threatened him with the possibility of denouncing him, which led to the alleged hiring of former commissioner Villarejo. According to Pinto’s version, in one of the calls he had with López Madrid, he told him that he had hired a commissioner named Villarejo who “He was an expert at making alibis”. “He also told me that he was an expert at putting cool girls like me in their place”he has reported.
Pinto’s version clashes head-on with what was declared this Monday by López Madrid himself. The businessman assured the court that he was harassed by the dermatologist and that he received daily calls from prepaid cell phones that he attributed to the doctor. In addition, he denied that he had hired former commissioner Villarejo or that he had paid him any fee.
The trial that began this Monday was planned for just a year ago, but López Madrid’s defense obtained the suspension. The Criminal Chamber decided to archive the case considering that the complainant’s lawyer was not entitled to accuse the crime of bribery, without the accusation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. However, after filing an appeal, it was agreed to hold the oral hearing.
Dr. Pinto’s indictment maintains that since September 2013, the businessman, “through the intermediation of Donato González Sánchez”, hired former commissioner Villarejo “knowing that he was an active Commissioner of the National Police Corps attached to the Deputy Operational Directorate of the Police, to help him finalize a personal matter in relation to María Elisa Pinto“.
Almost 13 years later, Pinto has been able to give his version before the court that only judges the alleged hiring of Villarejo. In addition to this procedure, which is part of the macro-case against Villarejo, the Criminal Court number 10 of Madrid will hold another trial for injuries, coercion and threats. In this case, the Public Ministry requests 13 years and two months in prison for López Madrid.
(News in extension).
