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Diego Pardo Cuellar was pointed out by the Prosecutor’s Office, in May of this year, of having abused his daughter from September 2014 to March 2015. After evaluating around a dozen testimonies, including that of the same girl, a criminal court of Bogotá acquitted him.
The business administrator Diego Pardo Cuellar, son of the former mayor of Bogotá Diego Pardo Koppel between 1985 and 1986, will be able to visit his nine-year-old daughter again, after being declared innocent for the crime of sexual act with a minor under 14 years of age. The 48th criminal court of Bogotá acquitted him, after evaluating the testimonies of the same girl, a handful of psychologists and even the domestic worker who worked in the house that he previously shared with his ex-partner.
According to the theory of the case of the Prosecutor’s Office, Pardo Cuellar abused his own daughter during the time he shared with her as a result of the conciliatory agreement to regulate visits, since he had separated in 2013 from his ex-wife María Margarita Herrera. According to the investigating body, between September 2014 and March 2015, the defendant took care of the girl every 15 days, during which time he kissed her on the mouth and even touched her private parts. Everything came off a complaint from the mother, who went to a family office in Chapinero.
According to court 48, Diego Pardo Cuellar is innocent today because the Prosecutor’s Office, turning to his witnesses, could not prove the guilt of the person linked to sexual abuse. “The testimony of the girl provides very few elements to have as proven the legally relevant facts reflected by the prosecution in the accusation, that is, although she admits that her father Diego Pardo Cuellar kissed her in her private parts, the apparent passage of time It did not allow him to remember more details, such as the place or how old he was at that time, ”said the office.
The central element during the development of the oral trial was the testimony of the nine-year-old girl before different psychologists and authorities. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Pardo Cuellar’s daughter claimed during the investigations that she was abused in a house that had a garden. However, Alejandra Robledo Pardo, cousin of the accused, testified that the place reflected in the complaint does not have such facilities and is located on the fifth floor. Due to inconsistencies like this, the court dismissed much of the testimony delivered by the alleged victim.
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“It should be noted that the minor did not remember aspects of what the house where the events took place was like -only that there was a piano-, or who was there when the father kissed his private parts, or who lived in that house with his father. He also did not remember the names of paternal grandparents, or his particular way of calling them as he mentioned in the forensic interview. It is important to say that the family of the defendant in oral proceedings said that the girl’s visits were a very important event and that everything revolved around her presence in the home of Diego Pardo Cuellar’s parents, “adds the court. .
At the request of the mother María Margarita Herrera, the clinical psychologist Graciela Galán received the girl on March 18, 2015 in her office, when the alleged victim was only three years and 10 months old. “Regarding the reason for the consultation, he said it was carried out by the mother in order to assess her emotionally because she presented changes in her behavior and attitude in recent weeks, both at home and at school, she was scattered, with a lack of kindness in dealing with his companions, and challenging the authority of the mother ”, stated the court.
The psychologist Graciela Galán indicated that, through games with the human figure, the girl showed signs of being subjected to inappropriate situations in the paternal family environment, even induced to live a “father-daughter secret”. The professional assured that she told her that they had kissed her on the mouth and touched her private parts, however, in the oral trial hearing, the minor never mentioned what was detailed by the psychologist. The judicial dispatch was conclusive: “Mrs. Galán Picón does not offer information that allows to conclude the existence of the crime.”
Mrs. Jaqueline Pérez, who worked as a domestic worker in María Margarita Herrera’s house between 2012 and 2015, also gave testimony. She said that on one occasion the girl was touching herself and told her that it was a “Diego’s secret”. The court indicated that this and other details did not give clues to a crime: “The testimony of Mrs. Pérez Santos reveals the apparent sexualized behaviors against the girl that were reported by Mrs. Galán Picón. However, the fact that the girl will arrive dirty or untidy after visiting with her father is not indicative of sexual abuse ”.
Within the process, the former mayor of Bogotá Diego Pardo Koppel also appeared, who assured that his son had a good relationship with Margarita Herrera until the moment of the child’s birth. Pardo Koppel testified that the paternal family rarely saw the minor, since his son did not have a house to take her and that is why they always saw each other in Alejandra Robledo Pardo’s apartment, who demonstrated that she did not have any garden on her property. “He adored his father,” said the former president.
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Among its considerations, court 48 assured that there are no elements to prove the alleged violation, on the contrary, the criminal news arises from a poorly performed assessment. “There is no doubt for the court that the lustful touchings for which the prosecution accuses Mr. Pardo Cuellar are not due to a spontaneous, express, direct and verbal manifestation of the girl, who at the time of that alleged revelation had with three years and ten months, but it arises in the middle of a psychological evaluation carried out by Mrs. Graciela Galán Picón ”, he declared.
Likewise, the office that declared Diego Pardo Cuellar innocent questioned the girl’s mother, since the assessment of the psychologist Graciela Galán was presented in March 2015 and, contrary to what would be expected, Commissioner 2 of the Chapinero family he only took care of the case on August 10 of that year. “If Mrs. Herrera Mercado was so interested in her daughter’s emotional health, with all the more reason she should have taken the corrections of the case when she found out, what apparently was the cause and not wait several months to report her ex-husband for the insults committed with his daughter ”, was established in court.
Finally, the acquittal referred to file 934-2020, of the Constitutional Court, which offers guarantees to those prosecuted for sexual abuse, without ignoring the rights of minors. “It is true that the rights of children are, by constitutional mandate, prevalent, and that minor victims of sexual crimes have the right to (…) effective protection measures be adopted in their favor that guarantee their interests, however, that Safeguard cannot go so far as to exclude the guarantees of the defendant and less to the obligation to issue a conviction against him, ”the court cited 48.
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