Mayor of Oria acquitted of administrative malfeasance and embezzlement
The Supreme Court confirms the sentence, against which no appeal is possible. He justifies his actions by the poor economic situation that the Town Hall was going through in 2013.
The Supreme Court, dated 13 February, has rejected the criminal appeal lodged by the former mayor of Oria, José Pérez, against the sentence of the Provincial Court of Almería, which already acquitted the current popular mayor, Marcos Reche, of the crimes of embezzlement and administrative prevarication, when he prevented the municipal secretary from taking office in 2013.
Pérez will also have to bear the costs of a trial that he wanted to repeat, and where he wanted to include the rest of the councillors, the secretary and even the Town Council’s lawyer.
The magistrate Pablo Llarena does not see any prevarication in the way Marcos Reche proceeded in preventing the municipal secretary from taking office, in a context in which the Oria Town Council was going through a very complicated situation. Up to three months’ wages were owed to council workers and the municipal debt was over 2.5 million euros.
«Hiring this secretary, which was not her position, would have done even more damage to the town hall. At that time, we took over the municipal management, and three months were owed to the workers, we had to take over the salaries of the home help workers because the company went bankrupt, and even pay them social security, which they were not paying either. The debt to suppliers was over 2.5 million euros, and then there were even more outstanding payments from the previous municipal management. We could not hire that secretary, it would have meant an unbearable financial outlay». This is how Marcos Reche describes those first months at the head of the municipal council.
This has been the argument on which his defence has been based in these legal proceedings for which he has been asked for ten years of disqualification from public employment or public office.
The Second Section of the Provincial Court of Almería acquitted the mayor and the Supreme Court now rejects the appeal presented by the prosecution.
«They have been complicated years, and they still are. We have been paying and paying debt all this time. We are also paying off lost lawsuits from the previous administration, invoices and money pending payment that we have taken on ourselves. And on top of all that, we have to add this judicial procedure, which we are not really at peace until it is closed. Finally, justice has given us the reason», concludes Marcos Reche.