[DR1] Pepe free on bail

[NewsWhore]

Ex-army colonel and former President Hipolito Mejia's security chief, Pedro Julio "Pepe" Goico Guerrero was favored by a ruling by the National District Court of Appeals which substituted the preventive prison sentence to a RD$10 million bail and exit impediment during the preparatory phase of his trial. He is accused of involvement with the Quirino Ernesto Paulino drug trafficking and asset laundering case being heard in New York City. Judges Miriam German Brito and Modesto Martinez Mejia voted in favor of the bail whereas Judge Manuel Hernandez favored the previous ruling of preventive prison. Goico kissed his lawyer, Artagnan Perez Mendez when he heard about the decision. He had spent a week at the Victoria Jail. He described the jail as a cemetery for living men, where not even the minimum conditions for the police responsible for security exist, and where the inmates suffer major shortages. Judge Martinez motivated the decision on grounds that it was unlikely he would become a fugitive from justice and his track record of appearing in court in the past.

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