The Supreme Court of Justice unanimously rejected this Wednesday an appeal filed by the director of the La Trinidad Sanatorium, Roberto Osvaldo Martinganoaccused of hiding evidence to hinder the investigation into the death of journalist Débora Pérez Volpin in 2018.
The medical director of the sanatorium located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo was prosecuted in 2020 together with the surgical instrumentalist Miriam Eliana Frias, who participated in the abdominal video endoscopy in which the journalist died.
Among the evidence to prosecute Martingano, the judge Maria Fabiana Galletti He pointed out on that occasion that “during one of the raids at the aforementioned sanatorium, he handed over to the police officers, as part of the endoscopic team, a ‘Fujinon’ processor model EVE 200 EPX 201 that he identified as the used in the study carried out on the victim, which presented his filed serial number”.
This “prevented the investigators from knowing the origin and location of the aforementioned equipment, as well as the controls on its proper functioning,” he added.
The judges Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, Juan Carlos Maqueda and Ricardo Lorenzetti They rejected Martingano’s proposal, accused of “maneuvers tending to hide evidence to hinder the investigation into the criminal responsibility of the doctors who participated in the study of upper digestive video endoscopy.”
In 2020, Judge Galletti dismissed Claudia Esther Balcedahead of the surgical instrumentation team; edward cavallodirector of the prepaid Galen, and Sebastian Alfredo Cecchi Gallowho cleaned the endoscope after the intervention.
The journalist had gone to La Trinidad to be treated for abdominal pain, less than a month after being sworn in as a Buenos Aires legislator for the Evolution list, led by the former Minister of Economy and current national senator for the UCR, Martin Lousteau.
For the death of the journalist, in 2019, the endoscopist Diego Bialolenkier was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 7 years and 6 months of disqualification from practicing his profession, while the anesthetist Nelida Puente was acquitted by the Criminal and Correctional Oral Court number 8 of the City of Buenos Aires.
