The case against Minister Marco Buzzi, of the (Superior Court of Justice), came from a civil servant, who reported an episode from inside the magistrate’s office. The fact that the act took place, according to the complainant, within the court premises
According to reports made to Sheet, In this Tuesday’s session (10), excerpts were read from the two statements given so far by the two women who. The first is the daughter of a couple of friends of the magistrate, who says she was grabbed during a swim in the sea. The second is an outsourced STJ employee.
The report was presented by the dean, minister Francisco Falcão, president of the committee responsible for conducting the investigation. He replaced Isabel Gallotti, who declared herself unable due to family ties to Buzzi. In addition to Falcão, two other men make up the group — ministers Raul Araújo and Antonio Carlos Ferreira.
Speaking to colleagues on Monday (9), Buzzi stated that he will prove his innocence in the face of allegations of sexual harassment against him. He also said he was “very impacted” and had never adopted “conduct that would embarrass the family or tarnish the judiciary.”
The statement was made in a message sent in a WhatsApp group by STJ ministers. It was his first demonstration to his colleagues since the first news about the allegations broke last week.
This Tuesday, three ministers heard privately by the Sheet stated that the atmosphere in the plenary was one of perplexity — one of them classified the report as “overwhelming”. The hierarchical position between the civil servant and the minister worsened colleagues’ perception of the seriousness of the case. The majority opinion of the STJ was already for the application of punishment to the magistrate, even before the end of the investigations, but it was intensified after the second complaint.
Last week, during the secret session in which it was decided to open the investigation, of the 32 voters, ministers Og Fernandes, Sérgio Kukina, Raul Araújo, Regina Helena Costa and Isabel Gallotti saw no disciplinary infraction to be investigated.
They argued, at the time, that the act of which Buzzi is suspected would not be directly related to the exercise of the judiciary — therefore, the investigation should be restricted to the criminal field, currently being processed at the (Supreme Federal Court), with procedures within the scope of the STJ and the (National Council of Justice) being unnecessary.
Three of these ministers (Regina, Isabel and Fernandes) were absent from this Tuesday’s session — the STJ said that the absences were justified, but did not detail the reasons. The other two ended up voting for precautionary removal, as a new complaint mentions a crime that had been committed within the court.
The national inspector of justice, minister Mauro Campbell, heard the former civil servant this Monday — the complainant is still outsourced to the STJ, but no longer in Buzzi’s office. Three other employees were called to testify to deepen the investigation.
The STJ will return to deliberating on the magistrate’s future at the end of the work of the inquiry committee investigating the episodes. This will take place in a plenary session on March 10th.
As shown by Sheetthe tendency is for the investigation to result in the magistrate’s compulsory retirement. For this to happen, 22 votes from the 33 members of the court are needed.
Buzzi’s lawyers claim that the minister “did not commit any improper act, as will be possible to demonstrate in due course within the scope of the procedures already initiated”. The note says that the leak of information seeks to “embarrass due legal process and unduly influence future judicial decisions.”
