Judge slams trial blocking ploy

THE FORMER head of Panama’s tax collection agency (DGI) who has been resting  under “house arrest”  in a private hospital for nearly two years is in the sights of a criminal judge for using “dilatory” mechanisms to block embezzlement investigations.

Luis Cucalón is due in court on September 18, facing charges of embezzlement in the collection of delinquent taxes from , s called him out because he has made a last minute move and hired another attorney to represent him in place of two previous lawyers.

Judge Rentería rejected the new lawyer because “… It  clearly represents [the action of Cucalón] a merely dilatory purpose that seeks an impediment .”

On August 24, the secretary of the First Criminal Court, Manuel Lezcano,  received a letter of “Waiver of power granted” to lawyers Edwin Teira and Juan Carlos Sánchez by Cucalón .

Loyalty and decorum
The judge pointed to  Article 18 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Article 215 of the Judicial Code, which as one of the guiding principles of the criminal process the loyalty and probity in the conduct of lawyers. It indicates that the “procedural law in force requires a minimum of loyalty and decorum to the lawyers of the parties, which also includes the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility of Lawyers … and therefore, the exercise of acts such as the present one is unfounded, since it represents clearly a merely dilatory purpose that seeks the impediment or challenge … “.

In accordance with what is dictated by numeral 5 of article 201 of the Judicial Code, which grants judges the authority to reject any application or act that is notoriously improper or that indicates a demonstration in a trial, Judge Rentería rejects the copy of the power granted to the lawyer Moisés Bartlett, “which appears to have been presented on July 19, 2017 when there was still no waiver of Messrs. Teira and Sánchez … “. The resignation of these two lawyers was reported on August 24.

In her decision, the judge accepts the resignation of attorneys Sánchez and Teira, but sets a deadline of five days for  Cucalón to name another defender; and warns him that if he does not do so within that period, she will appoint ex officio defense counsel.

The judge ordered  Cucalón to be notified of the decision at Punta Pacífica hospital, where he has been under arrest since September 2015.