The Supreme Court has awarded the Department of Inspections the task of digging deep into a complaint made by the former president of the Joint Tribunal of the First Instance in San Juan de la Maguana, Maria Elena Quevedo Rosario.
The magistrate, who was demoted and transferred to a Court of Instruction in Las Matas de Farfan, questioned judicial independence, complaining of pressures and interference in her decisions by her immediate superior.
The president of the Supreme Court, Jorge Subero Isa, told reporters from Diario Libre that investigators would also look into the job performance while the judge was on the Joint Tribunal.
Answering reporter's questions, he said, "Ever since the magistrate made her first public complaint, our office asked the Investigations Department to conduct a thorough investigation, especially concerning what was complained about by the magistrate as well as her job performance while she was presiding judge on the Joint Tribunal." The magistrate accused the president of the Penal Chamber of the Court of Appeals of that judicial department (San Juan de la Maguana), Manuel Antonio Ramirez Susana, of pressuring her to issue a guilty verdict against former banker Leonel Almonte. "There are fellow judges who witnessed the pressures that I have complained about, because he always went there to question me about why a specific case should be cancelled, and he said to me, "Maria Elena, above all be careful, because all eyes are on you because you are the presiding magistrate and you are responsible," she said. Judge Quevedo said that Ramirez sent inspectors, who were assigned to watch her cases. "In other words, he was always pressuring me, tricking me, blackmailing me," she emphasized, after saying that he (Ramirez) "got angry and said that I had to condemn Leonel Almonte."

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