Lawsuit filed against Puerto Rico senator
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| Published on Saturday, September 6, 2008 |
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By María Miranda Sierra
Caribbean Net News Puerto Rico Correspondent
Email: miranda@caribbeannetnews.com
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Although Puerto Rico's New Progressive Party was expected to file an urgent motion on Thursday at the San Juan Superior Courthouse, it was not until Friday morning that attorney Harold Rivera filed the lawsuit against NPP Senator Jorge de Castro Font aimed at ousting him from the party for verbally attacking party president Luis Fortuño.
The lawsuit was filed on the last day the Puerto Rico State Election Commission has to make any changes in the 2008 electoral ballots. The NPP lawsuit aims at excluding De Castro Font’s name from appearing on the NPP senatorial ballot.
The lawsuit filed by Rivera also includes a provisional prohibition request to paralyze the printing process of the electoral ballots which is expected to begin this weekend.
Acknowledging that the lawsuit and provisional prohibition request was presented at the last minute, Rivera explained that he was asked to take on the case Thursday afternoon.
According to NPP sources, no other attorney wanted to take on the case as it seems like a lost battle.
“We presented it in less than 24 hours. There still is time for the court to see the case even though today is the last day to make any changes in the electoral ballot,” Rivera said.
The case will be seen San Juan Superior Court Judge Oscar Dávila Suliveres.
The lawsuit was filed after De Castro Font verbally attacked Fortuño, after he asked him to step down from his post and resign from running for re-lection after federal authorities searched the NPP senator’s home, office and a gas station.
Last week, federal authorities stormed into De Castro Font’s office, home and a gas station, confiscating computers, documents, trash bags, two brief cases and other items. Even though he had said a few weeks ago that if he became a target of a federal probe, he would step down from his post, at a news conference at his office at the Capitol last week, De Castro Font said that will finish his term in the Puerto Rico Senate and that his name will appear in the 2008 NPP electoral ballot.
“I welcome any federal investigation and I trust that this will end soon with a recovery of our persona,” De Castro Font said at the time.
“There are no existing charges against me hence it’s premature to make a decision on my candidacy for the November elections…They will find nothing in my work as a senator that is illegal, irregular or ill disposed,” De Castro Font said.
“I am recommending for the speculations to be set aside until the panorama is cleared up,” he added.
De Castro Font said that Fortuño’s call, asking him to step down from his post and from running in the upcoming elections, was premature and precipitated. | | | | Reads : 101 |
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