Virus test delays influence-peddling trial of judge’s son

A hearing  into  influence-peddling by the son of former Supreme Court judge Oydén Ortega Durán, and the judge’s former  secretary, scheduled to start on Tuesday, August 4 has been moved to September 3, as one of the defendants felt feverish and was tested for COVID -19

The intermediate hearing was to validate the evidence to be used in the trial. for Oydén Ortega Collado, and Claudia Purcait, son and ex-secretary, respectively, of the ex-magistrate of the Supreme Court of

At the start of the proceedings, Purcait reported that she felt feverish. Her lawyer, who spoke at the hearing via videoconference, said that a swab test was done to determine whether or not she has a coronavirus. The result has not been delivered.

Judge Justo Vargas decided to reschedule the hearing which has its genesis in a complaint filed by the Chirican businessman César Alvarado Taylor, who accused the son of ex-magistrate Ortega Durán of having asked him for money in exchange for the admission in Court of an appeal, related to a lawsuit for the sale of eight farms in 2002.

Alvarado Taylor was also charged, but on Tuesday, his lawyer Carlos Augusto Herrera informed journalists that his client had reached an agreement. The terms of that arrangement are unknown, but Herrera indicated that Alvarado Taylor will continue to participate in the process, but now as a witness for the prosecution.

At the time, Alvarado Taylor filed a complaint against Ortega Durán before the National Assembly, which eventually filed it for alleged lack of evidence.

Alvarado Taylor contributed details of the conversations held with Oydén Ortega Jr., in which he would have requested money to obtain the admission of a cassation appeal related to a process for the sale of eight farms.

Supposedly, the strategy – according to Alvarado Taylor- was that the file, which was initially in the hands of then magistrate Harley James Mitchell, would move to  Ortega Durán, and the key intervention of the interim president of the Court, Hernán De León.

Mitchell finished his 10-year term in Court in January 2016, and Ortega Durán in March 2019.

Alvarado Taylor acknowledged that he paid $ 40,000, of which $ 15,000 was for the admission of the appeal. He said that in order to get the ruling to his advantage, they were demanding $250,000.