The former mayor of the Pontevedra city of Baiona and provincial deputy of the PSOE, Carlos Gómez Prado, admitted this Friday before the Court of the Fifth Department of the Pontevedra Court, which is sentencing him for the annulment of five fines, that he himself is capable As a councilor, he signed the files in which these sanctions were submitted: “What was done is done, and once they were lifted, he no longer had the power to change the administrative procedure and reactivate the fines,” he explained. The politician is accused of one alleged crime of continued prevarication and another of untruthfulness.
The former socialist councilor explained that despite signing the decrees canceling the five complaints, “I did not know their content”: “I did it without really knowing what I was signing and without being aware of what it was could mean to me.” When asked by the prosecutor, Gómez emphasized that when he received the files to be signed in his office, he signed his signature without reading what it was about. “I signed without knowing the contents of these files,” he said. According to him, he only later realized that the fines had been canceled when he received it at home. “I was no longer able to reactivate the fine notices and cancel an administrative act,” the defendant claimed.
The politician assured the court that he had a card that allowed him to park in the area where he was fined, but he did not have it because he left it in a vehicle, which he repaired in the workshop. Gómez tried to refute the arguments of the prosecutor, who claims that this document did not exist at the time of the events and that it was subsequently forged.
The prosecutor's theory was confirmed by several local police officers who testified in this trial and assured that they had never seen the mayor's parking permit until the traffic offense reports were filed between April and June 2021 and that it was even missing a file number, Europe reports Press.
This Friday also testified the other defendant, Agent Plácido Vieitez, current chief of the local police, who was an officer (second chief) at the time of the events. He confirmed the existence of a card authorizing the mayor to park in the permitted vehicle area, as it was signed by him because the boss was on vacation. Vieitez, who also faces a three-year prison sentence and four-and-a-half years of disqualification for alleged subterfuge and complicity in the crime of forgery, reported that an order explaining the creation of the card was posted on the bulletin board. of the mayor's parking lot so that the agents became aware of it. However, the seven police officers who complained in this case stated in their statements that they were unaware of the existence of this card and that they only saw the card after the mayor had been fined five times.
The head of the local police admitted that he had previously seen the mayor's car parked in the approved area, although he did not have a map. In this regard, he argued that everyone in the city knew who the vehicle belonged to and that it was clear to them that they would not be fined.
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On that day of the trial, several socialist city councilors during Gómez's term as mayor also testified as defense witnesses. They have defended that the council had an authorized parking permit before issuing the fines. And other city council employees from departments such as social services or sports have assured that there were authorized parking permits so that some employees could park in certain areas and that until 2022 the file number was not indicated. For those required to report, this deficiency will result in the card being invalid. The fact that the data was included later supported the complaint they filed against the city council in 2021.
The trial will be heard on January 29th with the final conclusions of the prosecution and defense. After hearing the defendants and witnesses, it is possible that the Public Ministry will change the terms of its indictment for events dating back to April and June 2021, when Gómez Prado, who now leads the community group, was fined. the PSOE of Baiona after he was ousted from the mayor's office in the local elections last May.
The prosecution alleges that the parking permit presented by the former councilor was subsequently created and signed by him and the other defendant to avoid responsibility. Gómez also presented a report signed by the police officer also sitting on the bench, in which he stated that he knew of the existence of the receipt and that, therefore, the mayor's car was parked on those days and in that area with your knowledge and authorization .
In any case, the ministry points out that, as can be seen from the text of the allegedly forged card, the mayor was not allowed to park in this loading and unloading zone, but only in the areas approved for this purpose. Based on these allegations, the file investigator of the ORAL office of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra archived the sanctions procedure.