Prosecutor maintains that former judge María Belén Domínguez was part of the irregularities in the raffle of a case related to Jorge Yunda

For the provincial prosecutor of Pichincha, Alberto Santillán, there is no doubt that María Belén Domínguez, former judge of the Judicial Violence Unit against the Family and Women of Quitumbe, has participation in the crime of influence peddling, which is being investigated since the defendant, being a judge, resolved a protection action filed by the then mayor of Quito, Jorge Yunda.

On the afternoon of last Tuesday, Santillán, in a hearing to formulate charges against Domínguez that lasted four hours, presented more than 20 elements of conviction of the alleged interference of the former judicial official in the draw for a protection action filed by Yunda, which was intended to prevent her removal from the post of mayor of the capital.

Criminal prosecution of former judge María Belén Domínguez begins for facts related to constitutional action filed by Jorge Yunda

According to prosecutor Santillán, in her capacity as judge María Belén Domínguez would have arranged, through other officials judicial, the entry of the constitutional action to the Judicial Complex of Quitumbe, in the south of Quito, “with the slogan that the cause should fall on her.”

For the Prosecutor’s Office, what corresponded in that case was that the process was processed in the Flagrant Crimes Unit, since it was entered at 5:03 p.m. on June 18, 2021, that is, outside working hours.

“At the request of the defendant, said constitutional guarantee action arrived at her office as a process of” violence against women and the family, through an urgent act, mutual legal assistance “, thus achieving that the file is not drawn between the 331 judges of the Metropolitan District of Quito, but that the possibilities are reduced to the four of the Judicial Unit of Violence against Women and the Family of the South Judicial Complex of Quitumbe, to which María Belén D. belonged, ”the Prosecutor’s Office explained in a statement.

In the account of the events made by Santillán to support the elements of conviction presented, the provincial prosecutor included the information that the same then Judge Domínguez would have ordered to the former officials who participated in the raffle of the case to format their cell phones so that there would be no trace of the conversations they had on the day that Yunda’s protection action was entered in the South Judicial Complex of Quitumbe.

Judiciary dismissed a judge who ruled in favor of Jorge Yunda amid the dispute for the Mayor of Quito

Domínguez attended the protection action filed by Jorge Yunda against the councilors who made up the Table Commission that issued the reports for the removal of the mayor’s office. On June 28, the magistrate, who was dismissed at the beginning of October, partially accepted the action to protect the appeal filed by Yunda, on the grounds that legal security was violated.

Immediately, several complaints arose about alleged inconsistencies in the draw for the cause that fell in Domínguez, as well as in the process of another protection action in which the judge Carlos Soto, from the Iñaquito Judicial Unit, also agreed with Jorge Yunda and stopped his removal from the mayor’s office.

In light of these remarks, on July 8 last, the president of the Council of the Judiciary (CJ), María del Carmen Maldonado, announced the suspension of judges Domínguez and Soto, and other judicial officials. That same day, disciplinary proceedings of an administrative nature were initiated and the complaint was presented to the Prosecutor’s Office.

The elements of conviction included versions of two former officials of the Quitumbe Judicial Complex, who confirmed that they carried out actions by direct order of Domínguez so that the raffle of the constitutional action falls on his office; the cause raffle report in constitutional matters, a transcription of the audios of a conversation that the defendant and the two former judicial officials had via WhatsApp about the provisions they received from the former judge, among others.

For the Prosecutor’s Office, Domínguez would be the direct author of the crime of influence peddling by allegedly “having taken advantage of of her superior hierarchical position as a judge to exert influence and mislead to two subordinates to crystallize the atypical draw “.

After listening to the parties, the president of the Provincial Court of Justice of Pichincha, Vladimir Jhayya, began the investigation prosecutor that will last 90 days and ordered the precautionary measures on Domínguez prohibition of leaving the country, the use of the electronic surveillance shackle and must be presented every Monday before the Provincial Court of Justice of Pichincha. (I)