4
the case there occurred no exceptional circumstances that established an emergency situation or an
abnormal load of tasks for the prosecuting bodies.
22.
They said that the criminal case should have investigated the death of a police officer
found dead in the seat of the car of the train that was taking him home. As there were witnesses to the
incident – found and supplied in the case by the family members - that identified those responsible for the
act (in fact they identified one of them in a legal identification), it may be noted that there isn’t any
complexity in solving the case that would to date prevent the identification and punishment of those
responsible.
23.
They stated that when Dr. Marcela Garmendia’s started as the head of the Second
Transitional Court in November 1998, she ordered the case closed. She ordered the case reopened at
the insistence of the relatives, and since then very few of the evidence-gathering measures requested by
the family members of the victims have been ordered and executed.
24.
Regarding the activity of the Office of Public Prosecutor of the Province of Buenos Aires,
they stated that its participation had been minimal and had not even proposed any evidence-gathering
measures be taken.
25.
The petitioners stated that the court had neither ordered nor taken the investigative
measures requested by the plaintiffs, despite having a Special Investigative Commission of the Police of
the Province of Buenos Aires available.
26.
The petitioners claim that in this case, the State’s failure to provide effective remedies
affects the family members of Deputy Commissioner Gutiérrez, making them indirect victims.
27.
They add that during the visual inspection, the expert in gathering evidence who attended
stated that the briefcase that was found at the feet of Gutiérrez’s body was half closed, as if someone had
looked through it and had hurried to close it. However, this fact was not taken into consideration in the
lines of inquiry. Likewise, it was determined that a diary with a black leather cover, which had its contents
removed, was found inside the briefcase, a fact which was also not taken into consideration in the
investigation.
28.
They state that the main witness was found thanks to the efforts of the family members of
the victim. This witness, David Silva, had identified the perpetrators of the murder by their nicknames and
their police function. In his testimony, he had identified them as the “toll collectors” for all the vendors on
the train, he gave a detailed account of how the facts took place, and he identified Daniel Santillán as the
one who had shot Deputy Commissioner Gutiérrez in the back of the head. They add that thanks to the
testimony of David Silva, the experts had found the impact of the bullet in a pillar of a bridge over which
the train regularly crossed.
29.
They add that the other witness, Alejandra Chumbita, had been consistent with Silva in
the description of the attackers and their status as police officers, as well as the sequence of the events
that lead to the death of Jorge Omar Gutiérrez.
30.
They state that the creation of an Investigative Commission for the case – the
Investigative Commission of the Buenos Aires Police - had been done by the police department itself and
thanks to the persistent demands of the family members of the victim, not as a measure ordered by the
court.
31.
They claim that, days before the detention of agent Santillán, the Superintendent of
Railway Security had denied to the court the existence of an agent fitting the description. Likewise, after
the arrest, police authorities had tried to protect him by presenting the judge hearing the case with two
statements by children incriminating two other persons under 18 years old for the death of Gutiérrez.
They add that during the trial, the children had changed their statements, saying that they had been
tortured and forced to make the accusations by the deputy officers of the Superintendent of Railway