Trial of Mariana Gómez: in the 2nd hearing they showed videos of the attack
This Tuesday morning, the 11th, at the Oral Criminal Court No. 26, City of Buenos Aires, the second hearing took place in the oral trial that has the young lesbian Mariana Gómez as the accused.
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By Lucas Gutiérrez, from Buenos Aires
This Tuesday morning, the 11th, at the Oral Criminal Court No. 26 in Buenos Aires, the second hearing took place in the trial of Mariana Gómez, a young lesbian woman. Five videos were presented as evidence: one of an interview with Gómez on the TV program hosted by Pamela David, and four recordings of witnesses to the assault on Gómez by police officer Jonatan Rojo on October 2, 2017. Closing arguments will be read on Tuesday the 25th.
On June 5, at the first hearing, Gómez, his wife Rocío Girat, Officer Rojo, Metrovías employee José María Pérez, and two witnesses who were on the subway testified.
[READ ALSO: Mariana Gómez's trial: "I never went to trial for my sexual abuse, but I did for contempt of court"]
“I experienced this second hearing even worse than the first. In the first one, I thought I'd come and that would be the end of it. This time, they showed the videos of the situation, and I felt extremely humiliated; I couldn't even watch them,” Mariana Gómez explained to Presentes. “I kept my head down constantly because hearing Rocío describe how she was feeling at that moment, or hearing myself, or seeing how I was feeling at that moment, wasn't very pleasant,” she said.
The prosecution had already reviewed the video of the interview on the TV program 'Pamela a la tarde,' so they proceeded to view footage filmed by witnesses. "In the first video, you can see a plume of smoke from the person filming, who is smoking at that moment. The person walking past the camera is also smoking," said Gómez's lawyer, Lisandro Teszkiewicz. "In the four videos we presented, it's clear that there are no signs prohibiting smoking," he added.
"In the video, Mariana appears to be drowning."
“Many of the people filming were smoking. In the videos, you can see Marian telling them not to smoke, that the same thing would happen to them. In that moment of shock, when they came and attacked us, using cigarettes as an excuse, we couldn't understand that it was a lesbophobic attack. When you start to see that there were many more people, that we weren't the only ones, that we were the only ones they approached, that they had been looking at us diagonally for about an hour, and that the only one they hurt was Mariana, the visible lesbian in this couple, that's when we began to understand the lesbophobic attack against both of us,” Rocío Girat told this media outlet.
Attorney Teszkiewicz explained that in the other videos, Gómez can be seen pleading to be released from the pressure Officer Rojo is exerting with his legs on Mariana's body. "It's clear how Mariana is being treated by the police. She can be seen begging, saying she's suffocating," he told the media outside the courthouse.
[READ ALSO: Mariana Gómez's trial begins]
During the hearing, it was revealed that in one of the official videos, Mariana Gómez's unconscious body was being dragged to the side. In another video, after she had recovered, she was seen telling Rocío Girat, "I'm calm, call my mom."
“I apologized to her, she has nothing to do with it,” Gómez shouted in the video, begging forgiveness from Officer Karen Villarreal. In the first hearing, she explained that when Rojo subdued her, she fell and, while trying to grab onto something, pulled out the officer's hair. “The medical examiner's report concludes that Karen Villarreal's injuries will heal in less than a month and do not prevent her from working, therefore the charges of serious bodily harm are dismissed,” the lawyer added after this second hearing.
"Just because you're a woman doesn't mean you can do whatever you want?"
As Rocío Girat had previously stated, in another video she is seen speaking with an officer who does not identify himself. “You have rights, we have rights too,” the uniformed officer tells her, and continues: “Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”
Rocío Girat told Presentes: “The day after what happened, we went to the Office of the Prosecutor for Institutional Violence (PROCUVIN) to report the abuse of power, the institutional violence that Jonathan Rojo perpetrated against us. We reported him because he was the one who hit Marian, the one who demanded our marriage certificate, the one who took her to the holding cell. He hit her, and he was the one who approached us violently, showing no respect for her identity or mine.” The prosecution requested that this report be presented during the closing arguments.
[READ MORE: Expert report confirmed that Mariana Gómez did not attack the police: “It was lesbo-hatred” ]
“That day we weren’t doing anything wrong. We weren’t agitated; on the contrary, we were distressed. We didn’t want to hit anyone; we just wanted to leave,” Rocío said. The closing arguments and sentencing will take place on Tuesday, June 25, at 9:30 a.m. Mariana Gómez stated, “We expect acquittal.”
Mariana Gómez and Rocío Girat at today's hearing in Buenos Aires.
[READ ALSO: #LesbianKisses Mariana Gómez is prosecuted after being arrested while kissing her wife]
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