The head of the Public Prosecutor's Office's Directorate General for Prosecution described it as "a mockery of the victims.".
SANTO DOMINGO. - Deputy Attorney General Wilson Camacho announced that the Public Prosecutor's Office will appeal the coercive measures imposed early Thursday morning on siblings Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, accused of involuntary manslaughter and involuntary assault and battery resulting in the deaths of 235 people and injuries to over 180 others in the collapse of the Jet Set Club's roof on April 8.
The head of the Public Prosecutor's Office described Judge Fátima Veloz's decision, issued by the Permanent Attention Services Judicial Office of the National District, as "a mockery of the victims." Veloz had granted the defendants bail, required them to appear in court periodically, and barred them from leaving the country. The case was declared complex.
“We believe that the court has not properly assessed the facts,” Camacho said.
“We believe that the court did not properly assess the magnitude of the damage that these events have caused to Dominican society; but, above all, the damage that it represents for 235 people who died, more than 180 people who were injured, and more than 130 children who were orphaned as a result of this conduct and as a result of the behavior of Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, who put their economic interests above the interests of the people who were there, those who regularly went to that nightclub,” he added.
Answering questions from the press at the Ciudad Nueva Courthouse after the hearing ended, the deputy prosecutor emphasized that "everyone in the courtroom acknowledged the quality of the Public Prosecutor's investigation; all the plaintiffs did so, and the court did so in its ruling.".
The court also recognized the legal classification given by the Public Prosecutor to the case, treating the facts with a 19th-century penal code that "does not contemplate other forms of evaluation of this type of event, which, really, fits into what is known as conscious guilt.".
During the hearing, which lasted approximately 14 hours, Deputy Attorney Wilson Camacho led the litigation team along with prosecutors Rosalba Ramos (head of the National District), Héctor García, Magalys Sánchez, Emmanuel Ramírez, Rosa Ysabel Mejía, Miguel Collado and Vladimir Viloria.
The Public Prosecutor's team presented more than 130 pieces of evidence to support the request for preventive detention against Antonio Espaillat and house arrest against his sister Maribel Espaillat.
Judge Veloz ratified the legal classification presented by the Public Ministry, which attributes to them the violation of articles 319 and 320 of the Dominican Penal Code, which define and punish involuntary homicide and injuries caused by recklessness or negligence.
The case
As part of the elements that aggravate the responsibility of the accused, the investigation determined that the owners of Jet Set overloaded the structure of the nightclub's roof by installing large-volume air conditioning, including six air conditioners of 15 and 20 tons each, and water tanks, all without carrying out any study that guaranteed the capacity of the structure to support said weight.
The prosecutors established that Antonio and Maribel Espaillat resorted to inadequate palliative solutions, always with the intention of saving resources, despite having direct and constant knowledge of the serious problems of the roof, through visual reports, photographs, videos and communications from their own employees.
