"I need a
trial for the truth
, I need it. And the elements are there so that I can carry it out."
In this way, Juan Martín Rago (46), known as Jey Mammon, announced that
he will request this type of trial
to prove his innocence in the complaint of child sexual abuse made by Lucas Jorge Benvenuto (30).
Although the case that the young man initiated in 2020 against the musician for having abused him
from the age of 14 to 17
prescribed due to the passage of time, there is the possibility of a trial for the right to the truth to be unarchived and investigated. .
The importance of this type of trial lies in the fact that
it attributes responsibility
, that is, it indicates that a person committed certain crimes or not.
And although he has committed them, he does not set a sentence because the prescription has already operated.
The surprising thing is that the television host himself was the one who, through a video posted on his Instagram account, maintained that he will request this trial, which is always requested by people who complain before the prescription is issued.
However, the lawyer Fernando Burlando, who represented Mammon in that file, defends the possibility that he requests the trial for the truth.
“In a case like this, both the complainant and the accused can request it.
The principle of equality before the law governs both, ”he says in dialogue with
Clarín
.
Jey Mammon was denounced by Lucas Benvenuto for sexual abuse when he was a minor.
Although he is still considering assuming the defense of Mammon, if he requests this trial, he believes that the procedure can be reached "through a complaint for threats or a lawsuit for slander and libel, since Lucas's statements are controversial because he says things that are not reality, like she was 14 at the party where she met Jey
but she was 16
”.
Burlando points out that
there is evidence of how old they were
at the time of the event, since there is a video of the party "uploaded to YouTube" and "witnesses who support Jey's position" were also contacted.
Despite this controversy about the age of the victim,
article 119 of the Penal Code
states that "anyone who sexually abuses a person when he or she is under the age of thirteen (13) years or when there is violence, threat, coercive or intimidating abuse of a relationship of dependency, authority, or power, or taking advantage of the fact that the victim for any reason has not been able to freely consent to the action".
The victim in this case denounced that he was drugged and raped.
Contrary to what the criminal lawyer maintains, other criminal law experts consulted by
Clarín
consider that the video of the television host was just a strategy to clear his name.
“It is unusual that the defendant puts himself in that situation, procedurally it does not correspond.
If he wants a trial for the truth, it should be a real trial, but at the time he did not defend himself or demonstrate the elements that he supposedly claims to have now, ”says lawyer Javier Moral, who sponsored Lucas in his other two complaints for sexual abuse. childish.
He also points out to
Clarín
that in the video he no longer talks about extortion, as he said at the time in a text where he maintained that Lucas was extorting him, which was the strongest thing he had.
For him, Mammon's seven-day delay to speak was "to improve his situation before public opinion, but despite what he says when he was with Lucas he was a minor."
His colleague Nadia Marina Rivas, one of the lawyers for the victims of Alberto Cirulnik, former medical director of the ORT school, also admits: “I have never
seen a defendant request a trial for the right to the truth
.
I understand that it can be a communication strategy because the Justice can deny it, since they have already dismissed it."
Last year, the lawyer managed to get Cassation to enable this trial in the case she is carrying but confirmed the impossibility of convicting the defendant for the accusations of abuse of girls and boys, due to the passage of time.
"If the trial for the truth is carried out if Mammon requests it, the complainant should request that the court that decreed the prescription and the prosecutor's office that urged it not resolve the procedure," explains Rivas.
The National Criminal and Correctional Court No. 3 and the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office No. 28 intervened.
In turn, he considers that "Lucas, at Mammon's request, could request a trial again and try to reach the Supreme Court to rule on the matter."
The lawyer agrees with the criminal Alfredo Vitale, who represented one of the victims of the "illustrious citizen" of Gualeguaychú, Gustavo Rivas, convicted of child sexual abuse.
"The trial for the truth has no criminal consequence, that's why he asks for it. I don't think he would advance like this in a criminal proceeding for the possible sanction. His request is for the tribune," he told
Clarín
.
Along the same lines, the lawyer for one of the victims of Father Julio César Grassi, Juan Pablo Gallego, considers that the Mammon video "is pure acting and will not lend itself to trial for the truth."
And he clarifies: "He made a public speech to try to improve his situation but it doesn't seem to me that he has succeeded."
In fact, the musician acknowledged the relationship he had with Lucas.
"I am not going to put my bond with him under a rug, nor did I do it at the time of him, because we went hand in hand down the street, we kissed in the street," he said.
For Gallego "the trial could be held and, in turn, it is legal for him to request it." Although he emphasizes that "he already declared against him
with what he said in the video, acknowledging that he had a link with the complainant.
"
However, the television host denied having been in a relationship with Lucas when he was a minor, as the young man maintains in his complaint.
"That bond lasted until about 25 years of age, back and forth," he said.
And he also referred to a tweet he wrote on December 22, 2011 that said: "I dreamed that I was hooking up with my ex, Lucas."
He confirmed that he was his complainant and assured: "I had a relationship with Lucas, I had a relationship with Lucas. I am not going to sweep the tweet or my relationship with him under the rug. On that date, December 22, 2011, Lucas I was 19 years old."
Trials for the truth: viable or unfeasible?
Trials for the right to the truth
are not common in Argentina
, since
they are not regulated
, so it is very difficult for them to advance.
As the action prescribed, the Criminal Procedure Code could not be applied, for example, so that the accused appears by force.
These types of trials have been carried out in different cities of the country since 1998. The first of them was in La Plata.
They were promoted by the relatives of the disappeared and the Human Rights organizations against those responsible for the crimes against humanity committed during the last civic-military dictatorship.
Since the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws were in force at the end of the 1990s, which prevented members of the Armed Forces from being tried, these trials were used to find out what happened to
each disappeared person
and to find out how State terrorism was organized. during the de facto government.
These trials were also carried out in Bahía Blanca, the City of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Resistencia, Rosario, Salta and San Salvador de Jujuy.
"Currently there are trials for the truth, but all of them are being investigated, so they are not given as much attention. Like the one against the Cavalloti sisters, the expert reports have already been carried out, although for now there is no oral debate," explains Rivas, a lawyer who He is defending both of them who denounced their brother Eduardo Esteban Cavalloti for child sexual abuse.
The investigation of this trial is carried out by the same court that decreed the prescription, it is the National Criminal and Correctional Court No. 39. A year ago, Cassation enabled the trial for the truth, after the confirmation of the court and the Appeals that held that the action to judge the defendant was prescribed.
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