Rulings-for-sale trial splashes two former judges

The trial against Oydén Ortega Collado and Claudia Purcait, for the alleged sale of judgments in the Supreme Court began  on Thursday when  César Alvarado Taylor the man who denounced that he had paid sums of money to Ortega Collado, son of the former magistrate Oydén Ortega Durán , to obtain a favorable sentence in a land dispute took the stand

Alvarado Taylor said that he received multiple text messages from Ortega Collado, in which he assured him that in exchange for money he could solve the civil litigation for the purchase and sale of eight farms in Chiriquí.

He stated that they requested payments of between $5,000 and $15,000 for the admission of an appeal to achieve a favorable ruling on his claims. He acknowledged before the judges conversations, via WhatsApp, and emails exchanged with Ortega Collado, in which he assured him that he had to make a series of deposits to achieve the admission of the cassation, and that he had the consent of Hernán De León .

De León and Ortega Durán were magistrates in the Civil Court when the reported events took place.

In his statement, the complainant also detailed that the son of former magistrate Ortega Durán informed him that they should meet with Claudia Purcait, his father’s secretary, “to reconcile information about the process,” because “things were tangled.” He said that Purcait asked him for details of the process, because the case was very involved.

Alvarado Taylor explained that he received a copy of a draft ruling that was favorable to him, but that he was later told that in order to decide the merits of the case, he had to pay more money. He reported that in this situation and seeing that his case was not advancing, he went to the National Assembly and filed a complaint against Ortega Durán and De León, but it was shelved.

He then decided to report the alleged sale of a judgment to the Public Ministry, where he admitted that he had paid money to obtain a judgment in his favor.