COSTA RICA NEWS – Costa Rican Judge Oscar C. Gonzalez may lose his immunity to stand trial because of six charges of rape against him, the Corte Plena confirmed Thursday. Alternate members of the Court asked the Legislature make the corresponding constitutional procedure to remove Judge Gonzalez’ immunity after accepting the indictment filed by the Fiscalia (Public Prosecutor).
According to the president of the Legislative Assembly, Henry Mora, the a committee will be formed to study the application of the Court and the decision is expected to be adopted as soon as possible.
If the immunity is removed, the judge will have to undergo be tried before a regular court.
In September, 2013, the Fiscalia formally charged Judge Gonzalez with rape and and attempted rape against Judge Priscilla Quiros.
Quiros claims that the sexual assaults occurred in the midst of a relationship with the judge.
This sounds like a very messy situation. Since there were six reported counts, my first thought was that this guy must be guilty. Then I read that all the charges were apparently by one woman who was in a relationship with him. While I agree that rape can occur within a relationship, if there were repeated instances and the relationship continued, the question of consent becomes increasingly murky. Both judges will experience damage to their reputations before this is over, and the accused will probably get off unless there is a credible third party who witnessed these events. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
I’m surprised to see the name of the alleged rape victim reported.