Full Length Video: "Presumed Guilty"-Police Suing Film Makers for 600M Pesos

Borderland Beat Posted by "DD" on BB Forum

There are few presentations that better illustrate the corrupt and failed Mexican judicial system that "Presumed Guilty".   This full length film has been posted first on BB forum by Ovemex, and reposted several times.  ...Paz, Chivis

"In Mexico, 92% of the charges lack evidence."

"In Mexico, 93% of defendants never see a judge."

"In Mexico, being innocent is not enough to be free."

 Those statements were in a video documentary made in 2010 entitled "Presunto Culpable" ("Presumed Guilty"). The film was first shown internationally to wide acclaim and received awards for it's courage in showing the corruption and failed judicial system in Mexico.  

At first it was banned from being shown in Mexico, but with some restrictions was finally shown in Mexico in February 2011.  It caused an uproar and much indignation in Mexican society when it was released.  

From it's release date in Mexico of Feb. 18 until March 5 of 2011, 500,000 people in Mexico had seen it,  making it the most successful Mexican documentary of all time.  At that time, a Mexican judges order to suspend showings caused a political uproar across the political spectrum.  

The full documentary with English subtitles is below (use link at bottom), but first a short synopsis of the film and an update.

The documentary is based on the case of Jose Antonio Zuniga, 26 and a native of Iztapalapa, who on December 14, 2005 was arrested by police and later charged with the murder of a young man who had never seen.

With just one complaining witness comprising the total evidence - Victor Manuel Reyes, a cousin of the murdered-, Judge Medina Hector Palomares twice sentenced him to 20 years in prison, even though there was an abundance of  evidence of his innocence.

In what may be a first, somehow the  Roberto Hernandez Ruiz, a lawyer by training and filmmaker, and his partner, also a lawyer Layda Sansores Negrete and the criminologist  Rafael Heredia Rubio got permission to film the second trial.  He was found guilty for the second time in that trial.  

The first video below  is an interview with the filmmakers shown on PBS POV program entitled "Behind the Lens".  It is a good introduction to Presumed Guilty.  

After the filming and production and the brief limited showing in Mexico, but amid a lot of noise being made by the public, an appeals court exonerated and freed Toño Zuniga.

The success of Presumed Guilty did not produce a groundswell of change in the judiciary as might have been hoped for.  Instead it generated a virulent reaction by the Judiciary in Mexico City:  the film can not be sold on DVD, or projected in cinemas or on television due to various legal proceedings brought by the authorities who were displayed on the same.

Of course, neither the Judicial Police Commander Zuniga presented to the prosecutor or the judge Palomares Medina were penalized for malpractice. On the contrary, continue to work as usual.

Now, two years later, that "police" has sued the producers of the documentary for "moral damages" and for a sum close to 600 million pesos. The producers also face a million-dollar lawsuit filed by the only witness in the case and the family of murdered teenager in 2005.

Layda Negrete has that this could well be the second part of the film, the judges handling the case against them during the hearings have claimed that "the film went too far" and affected the duty of imparting justice in Mexico City

Just yesterday, July 10, 2013, there was another example of the partiality of the judiciary in this matter: a judge of a civil court of Mexico City, Maria del Rosario Pérez Mancera, "determined that it was not public" hearing, at which evidence was presented against Negrete.  This is in breach of the dictates of Article 20 of the Mexican Constitution which mandates that lawsuits be developed "publicly".

Negrete Sansores The lawyer also said that it is necessary to record the proceedings, because before there was a "failure to register" of the testimony, so that she no longer trust the impartiality of her case: "I regret that the Federal District Judicial is being decided by the opacity and not to face an audience that is clearly public, "she told the press
yesterday.

A maxim among lawyers in Mexico is: "Never do to anger the Judge". In the US, the same maxim applies but it usually stated as "Don't piss off the Judge".  This applies to what is happening now with the producers of Presumed Guilty.

That same judicial system that was completely exposed in the film, it seems that now is the slogan of revenge against those who exposed them. ....continues on following page

But, as happened in 2011, hopefully this  will escalate internationally where soon, again, the government of Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto will be displayed as a country without law, without respect for human rights, where the weak are abused , bonded tranzas officials and corruption is rewarded. In short: a country without freedom or justice.

 SinBargo

Interview with Toño's attorney's and information behind the scenes from POV:



See full movie at this link on vimeo