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Top Spanish judge accused of drawing a gun during a traffic altercation
By h.b. - Dec 19, 2007 - 8:11 PM
ALSO SEE : • Constitutional Court accepts for debate the Government's challege against two judges - Dec 3, 2007 - 4:11 PM

Judge Roberto García-Calvo at the moment of his swearing in - Archive Photo EFE
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The case against the Constitutional Court magistrate, Roberto García-Calvo, has been passed on to the Supreme Court
The strange case of the allegations made against the Constitutional Court Judge, Roberto García-Calvo, has been passed on to the Supreme Court in Spain.

A 24 year old driver, Vicente Garcerán Martínez, was in a traffic altercation with the judge, and claims that after running into the back of his vehicle the magistrate pulled a gun on him, threatening him with the pistol.
The youngster claims the judge showed him his identification and said ‘You don’t know who I am, I am a judge’, and then threatened to shoot him. The 24 year old replied ‘You haven’t got the balls’, at which point the judge threatened him again with the gun while the youngster called the Guardia Civil.

The original complaint was made in the early hours of July 14 following an incident in the Madrid dormitory town of Móstoles.

The magistrate has refused to talk to the press about the incident, although he admitted to El País that an incident had taken place and that he was a gun owner, but he denied to have taken out the pistol.

Judge Roberto García-Calvo is considered to be the most conservative magistrate on the Constitutional Court. Experts say that if the allegations against him are found to be true in the Supreme Court he could lose his position as an argument over a traffic incident is not reason enough to behave as the judge is alleged to have done.

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Meanwhile in a separate story the Disciplinary Commission of the General Council for Judicial Power, CGPJ, the regulatory body for the judiciary in Spain, has decided by four votes to one to archive the case of alleged irregularities against Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez, who headed the three judge panel on the Madrid Train Bombings case.

The publication of a book by the judge’s wife had led to allegations that the judge had behaved improperly and had revealed secrets during the time of the case, allegations which have now been dismissed.


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ALSO SEE :
• Constitutional Court accepts for debate the Government's challege against two judges - Dec 3, 2007 - 4:11 PM
• Spanish constitutional commission passes Historical Memory Law - Oct 17, 2007 - 11:24 PM
• Constitutional Court admits appeal by the Basque party, ANV - May 9, 2007 - 11:04 PM