The mayor of Tlajomulco has spoken out about the failings of the new criminal justice system after a judge last week released a 19-year-old man detained on suspicion of robbery for the ninth time.
Alberto Uribe Camacho was so angered that he called a press conference and penned a missive to the media about the case of “Kevin N” who was released on a “technicality” by judge José Luis Gutiérrez Miranda after he was caught in the act of breaking into a house at the end of October.
This was the third time in three weeks that Kevin had been arrested by municipal police for attempted house theft and subsequently released.
He was also arrested on January 23, July 15 an August 16 of this year and released on each occasion. Records also show three other arrests – but no prosecutions – in 2014 and 2015.
According to Uribe Camacho and other documents, the judge freed Kevin last week because he had fled the house by the time police arrived at the scene and the victim was not present during the subsequent arrest, and therefore not able to properly identify him.
Uribe Camacho called the judge’s decision absurd. “It’s evident that today the judges pay more attention to due process than the rights of victims. Is due process more important than justice?” he asked. “What am I going to say to the officers who arrested him? It’s making a joke of their work.”
Interviewed by a local newspaper, Kevin’s grandmother admitted her grandson had a difficult upbringing and had fallen into bad ways, including taking drugs, and said for his own good should probably be locked up.
Uribe Camacho is demanding a thorough revision of the”tortuous” new justice system in Jalisco, which he labeled “inoperable, unfair and shameful.”