Global Courant 2023-04-19 22:33:53
Dressed in black, serious and with a quiet gesture, Sebastián Villa went from the Bombonera to the courtroom of Lomas de Zamora where the third hearing of the trial that has him in the dock took place.
Daniela Cortés denounced him for an assault that occurred on April 27, 2020. Now, the young woman lives in Medellín. She returned to her country after the complaint of gender violence against the Boca striker.
The process had already been postponed because Villa’s defense requested a psychological examination with an expert witness that has never materialized.
Villa was again with his lawyer Martín Apolo. Photo: Luciano Thieberger.
Now, and in the last scheduled hearing, Cortés agreed by video call to a talk with the psychologist who arranged for the footballer’s defense, in charge of Martín Apolo. The person in charge of the study will travel, with all expenses paid by Villa, to meet with the victim between April 24 and 26.
After that, the 26-year-old Colombian forward will be able to testify and it will be the turn of the parties’ arguments and the decision of the Justice.
Until today, the defense witnesses were focused on discrediting the victim and the previous conflicts in the relationship, oblivious to the physical assault denounced by the woman. In this sense, the testimony of this Wednesday was directed, although with some details of the discussion prior to the denounced facts.
At the third hearing of the debate, chaired by Judge Claudia Dávalos, of Lomas de Zamora Correctional Court No. 2, declared the player’s representative, Rodrigo Riep (46), by video call.
The couple, in other times.
The 26-year-old was divided between Colombia and Buenos Aires. As it emerged in the debate, she shared an apartment with Villa in Puerto Madero and a house in the country Saint Thomas, of Canning, in Esteban Echeverría.
She regularly traveled to Medellín to spend time with her daughter, just 6 years old, at least until isolation was decreed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The complaint began on social networks and arose after Cortés uploaded a series of photographs with injuries to his face, a product, according to what he said, of Villa’s attacks. He then made a presentation at the police station and, later, at the Justice.
Riep, in his testimony, made reference to the discussion that he witnessed on the day of the events between the woman and Villa, who on Tuesday night played the entire game that Boca beat Deportivo Pereira of Colombia in agony 2-1 for the Copa Libertadores de América.
Villa, this Tuesday, against Deportivo Pereira.. Photo REUTERS/Matias Baglietto
“She wanted to go on a private plane, she asked me for the money to go on a private plane back to Colombia (NdR: in the middle of the confinement international flights were suspended). Sebastián couldn’t take the confinement anymore, he wanted to leave the house. She told me that she wanted to leave, I offered her a nearby place where they could separate, rent her an apartment. But there was no case, she wanted to go to Colombia,” Riep said.
The former soccer player added: “At that moment, Sebastián raised the possibility of going to ‘Juanfer’ (by Juan Fernando Quintero, the then River player), who are acquaintances and friends, they lived in the same neighborhood. ‘Juanfer ‘ he invited him to his house,” Riep said.
And he continued: “At that moment I saw Daniela very nervous and very worried, I saw her very nervous because she was going to be locked up alone and because she was never going to see him again, I say, thinking about it from my side. I think she thought that she was going to be left alone, something that was not going to happen because we accompanied her as much as Sebastián ”.
The representative acknowledged having a “bad concept” of the victim and described that on April 27, 2020 Villa “was not allowed to leave the house.”
“Sebastián makes me a video call and when we were talking he told me that he wanted to leave, that he couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t know what room it was, but I saw a bed where the suitcase was, he kept her things and she took them out,” he said.
Along these lines, she noted: “There were many insults, not physically attacking each other but verbally, the conversation was hard. She told him ‘you’re not going to leave here, black bastard’, ‘black gonorrhea, I’m not going to stay alone ‘”, explained the representative, who spoke with him again when he was already at Quintero’s house.
“When he arrives at Quintero’s house, which was in the same neighborhood, he tells me that he locked himself in his room. After a while he calls me Sebastián and tells me: “Look what he did to me, he complied with everything he threatened me, look what he posted on Instagram, he wants to destroy me.” There I saw everything that went up and that was the beginning of this madness, ”he commented, in relation to the complaint about the beatings and the mistreatment exposed by Cortés.
When will the trial resume?
On Thursday, April 27, three years after the complaint and after the trip of the expert witness and the defense attorney, the trial will resume with the testimony of the psychologist. In addition -as they anticipated-, Villa could declare.
The woman, who has been available to the court since the beginning of the debate, could also expand her statement. And it will be the turn of the accusing party, in charge of the prosecutor Sergio Anauati.
Then the arguments should be made and the judge make her verdict known.
EMJ
