In the last plenary session, on September 4, 2012, there were 25 inquiries duly scheduled.
Most of them were financial investigations by judges who were unable to prove the compatibility between the earnings and the assets declared in Income Tax.
“Of the 25 processes, there were ten requests for views from counselors Fernando da Costa Tourinho Neto and , who alternated in the election”, says Eliana.
“The proceedings never returned to the plenary,” he states.
Tourinho was a judge at TRF-1. Dantas, nominated by the Senate. They are Bahians from Salvador, like the former inspector. Eliana and Tourinho took the same exam for TRF-1. They disagreed in court.
Last week, the column sent photos of the pages in which the minister is mentioned to Dantas’ office, at TCU. He did not speak out. The column was unable to locate Tourinho.
“I don’t want to say here what the counselors’ behavior meant in postponing, without justification, the judgment of the property investigations”, an “abhorrent attitude from colleagues, with repeated requests for a review”.
The farewell session was chaired by minister Ayres Britto, who succeeded Cezar Peluso in the . According to Britto, Eliana “does not fear reprisals, criticism, censure, always aware that she is acting in compliance with her legal duty.”
What bothered the minister most was the then president of , minister Ari Pargendler, responding to Peluso’s request and calling the court to vote on a note repudiating the magistrate’s office — which was not approved.
Among the investigations suspended at the CNJ is the investigation opened to investigate the asset movements of judge Claudionor Miguel Abss Duarte, from the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso do Sul.
The judge is defended by lawyer Suzana de Camargo Gomes, Pargendler’s sister-in-law. Suzana said she could not speak.
The summary states: “successive regimental view to counselors Bruno Dantas and Tourinho Neto”.
In May 2012, the Sheet revealed that Claudionor and four other TJ-MS judges were being investigated by the CNJ, suspected of accumulating assets incompatible with their declared income.
No transparency
At the end of the CNJ presidency, there was a similar episode. Minister Nancy Andrighi left the national internal affairs department upset, because around 40 ready cases were not brought to trial.
On both occasions, São Paulo magistrates were in charge of the body and discouraged the disciplinary issue.
At the time, the “understanding was that publicizing the Judiciary’s ills ended up weakening it”, says Eliana.
Persistent corporatism
Joaquim Falcão, advisor to the first composition of the CNJ, warned Eliana: “Make no mistake, corporatism does not give up, it persists.”
“It’s like the cavalry in historical films, it advances, retreats, waits a bit, and attacks again.”
“I decided to put on the boots of a German soldier and go and do an inspection. From that day on, things started to change and unlocked inside”, he says.
Eliana praises the former presidents of TJ-SP José Renato Nalini and Ricardo Sartori.
Improper advocacy
In the former inspector’s first clashes, the College of Presidents of Courts of Justice, today the Council of Presidents of Courts of Justice, a private law entity, began to function as a defense assistant for the judges being investigated.
When he presided over the CNJ, Lewandowski created, without submitting to the collegiate, two advisory councils: one brought together presidents of judiciary trade associations; the other, presidents of courts of justice.
No legalese
Judge at TRF-1, Eliana created a forensic Latin dictionary, used for training new judges.
Colleagues despised the initiative, jokingly calling it “Professor Eliana’s little school”.
No double shift
Eliana says she gave up teaching when she arrived at TRF-1. “You cannot serve two masters when both are important.”
He did not mention the convescotes and caravans of judges. Lewandowski made fees for lectures given by magistrates confidential.
Urbanity and tolerance
Eliana’s chief of staff, Anderson Alves Garcia, handled the internal affairs department’s annoyances and setbacks with promptness and good humor. One day, she asked: Anderson, how can you stand me?
“I pray, doctor.”
Last words
Eliana says that, over the 39 years in which she was “a happy and fulfilled judge”, she believed, “through ignorance or naivety, in the construction of a better and fairer country based on a serious, competent and egalitarian Justice”.
Readers’ judgment
Here are reader reviews of Eliana Calmon’s management. They were requested by the column.
“Main success: he faced and unraveled the courts. He made a mistake: he didn’t know how to create institutional policy and consolidate support.” (Maria Tereza Sadekpolitical scientist)
“No matter how incipient her corrective action was, Eliana Calmon was the one who came closest to the ideal of monitoring the Judiciary. Our problems are structural, they come from the top and that is why it is so difficult to resolve.” (Roberto Wanderley Nogueirafederal judge)
“It had to be a woman who had the courage to dare!” (Maria Berenice Diaslawyer, retired judge)
“To curb the unacceptable and growing corruption in her very important and conservative corporation, Eliana Calmon, with peculiar insight, managed, without violating legal secrecy, to relativize it to the correct extent, in defense of the indispensable transparency.” (Airton Florentino Barroslawyer, retired prosecutor)
“Eliana Calmon and Joaquim Barbosa crossed the limits imposed by exclusion and erasure. Two very serious social problems, which since the colony, have been falsely told to us: gender and racism. The first, after eight years, condemns and keeps Marielle’s executioners in prison; the second through the presence of an Afro-descendant in the Supreme Court. Both, to the best and fairest performances available, without a doubt, without their own courage and insight, would have been dragged to mediocrity. These are minimal reasons to pay homage to them in a brief memory.” (Caetano Lagrastalawyer, retired judge).
“I don’t remember any more details. My general impression is that it was courageous and independent acting.” (Luiz Antônio Marreyformer attorney general of Justice)
“Eliana Calmon made an effort, but one swallow doesn’t make a summer. There is no need for a code of conduct as everything is at LOMAN [Lei Orgânica da Magistratura Nacional]no CPP [Código de Processo Penal]no CPC [Código de Processo Civil]in the Constitution and other extravagant laws. Righteous conduct comes from education received at home, something that must be instilled in early childhood. The Judiciary has protected itself with its hermeticism for centuries. After the STF ‘saved democracy’, they became even more brazen! The country will not improve if the Judiciary is not heavily sanctioned.” (Ana Lúcia Amaralretired regional prosecutor of the Republic)
