SANTO DOMINGO.- The Public Prosecutor's Office yesterday, Friday, November 8, filed a formal accusation and request for trial against siblings Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, who are being prosecuted for the collapse of the roof of the Jet Set Club nightclub that left 236 people dead and more than 100 injured on April 8 of this year.
In the case, filed with the Coordinating Office of the Courts of Instruction of the National District, the Public Ministry is represented by the deputy prosecutor Wilson Camacho, head of the General Directorate of Prosecution of the Public Ministry; the head prosecutor of the National District, Rosalba Ramos.
Also, by the court prosecutor Héctor García, the prosecutors Magalys Sánchez, Miguel Collado and Rosa Ysabel Mejía, and the inspectors Vladimir Viloria and Enmanuel Ramírez Sánchez.
The Public Prosecutor's Office establishes that, in their actions, as those responsible for the operation of the entertainment venue that operated on Independencia Avenue, in the National District, the Espaillat brothers incurred involuntary homicide and involuntary blows and wounds , crimes punished in articles 319 and 320 of the Dominican Penal Code.
The investigation was carried out based on a specific instruction issued by the Attorney General of the Republic, Yeni Berenice Reynoso , who commissioned the Director General of Prosecution and the District Attorney of the National District to carry out the criminal process, in order to determine the causes of the collapse of the roof of the Jet Set Club nightclub.
The prosecutors support the accusation with hundreds of pieces of evidence that compromise the criminal responsibility of the defendants.
The court determined that the defendants aggravated their responsibility by overloading the building's roof structure with large air conditioning units and water tanks, without conducting technical studies to guarantee the structure's strength. Furthermore, they ignored internal warnings about the roof's deterioration, prioritizing cost savings despite the obvious risks.
The report summarizes the findings that, when analyzing the structure of the building, were documented by Leonardo de Jesús Reyes Madera (earthquake-resistant engineer), Eduardo A. Fierro (president of BFP Engineers) and Máximo José Corominas Quezada (pathological engineer), appointed by the Public Ministry in its investigation of the case.
