Barcelo v. Agosto
| Citation | 876 F. Supp. 1332 |
| Decision Date | 25 January 1995 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 92-2358(JP). |
| Parties | Carlos Romero BARCELO, Plaintiff, v. Miguel Hernandez AGOSTO, his wife Maria Casanova, and the conjugal partnership constituted between them, Marco Antonio Rigau, his wife Maria Del Carmen Moran, and the conjugal partnership constituted between them, Edgardo Perez Viera, his wife Carmen L. Marrero, and the conjugal partnership constituted between them, and Popular Democratic Party, and John Does one through one hundred, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Michael Rovell, Chicago, IL, Carlos Látimer, San Juan, PR, for plaintiff.
Marcos Ramírez Lavandero, Old San Juan, PR, Roberto Fernández, Goldman, Antonetti & Córdova, San Juan, PR, for defendants.
The Court has before it defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint (docket No. 2), plaintiff's opposition (docket No. 6), and defendants' reply (docket No. 12). The plaintiff, Carlos Romero Barceló, initiated this action to recover damages for alleged violations to his civil rights as well as for damages to his honor and reputation. The defendants, Miguel Hernández Agosto, Marco Antonio Rigau, Edgardo Pérez Viera, and their respective spouses and conjugal partnerships, deny any wrongdoing and claim that they are completely immune to all claims presented by the plaintiff pursuant to the protections afforded by the doctrine of legislative immunity. For the reasons set forth below, the motion to dismiss is hereby GRANTED.
The facts which give rise to plaintiff's complaint are tantamount to a lesson on the modern political history of Puerto Rico. The plaintiff, Carlos Romero Barceló, has been one of the dominant figures in Puerto Rican politics for over two decades. He was affiliated with the Statehood Republican Party ("SRP") and has been a member of the SRP's successor, the New Progressive Party ("NPP"), since its creation in the late 1960s. The NPP, which is one of the two principal political parties in Puerto Rico, advocates statehood for Puerto Rico. The plaintiff currently holds the position of Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico, through which he represents the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as a member of the United States Congress. Prior to holding this position, he served as Mayor of San Juan (1969-77), Governor of Puerto Rico (1977-85), and Senator in the Puerto Rico Legislature (1987-89).
In the summer of 1978, while the plaintiff was serving his first term as Governor, two young supporters of a radical nationalist pro-independence group were killed in a shooting incident with police officers at a mountain locale known as Cerro Maravilla. The police reported that the two men were killed while resisting arrest. However, the incident took on considerable political importance and was the subject of intense media coverage as evidence surfaced suggesting that Arnaldo Darío Rosado and Carlos Soto Arriví were murdered after they surrendered to the police. This incident also gave rise to a host of legal actions, both in federal court and in the courts of Puerto Rico.1 A brief review is in order.
On February 6, 1984, a federal grand jury for the District of Puerto Rico returned a forty-four (44) count indictment against nine (9) members of the Intelligence Department of the Puerto Rico Police for a conspiracy to: (1) obstruct justice in a criminal investigation, (2) give false testimony in depositions and before federal grand juries, and (3) suborn perjury. United States v. Moreno Morales, 815 F.2d 725, 730 (1st Cir.1987). In essence, the indictment charged the defendants with engaging in a conspiracy to "`prevent the citizens of Puerto Rico and law enforcement authorities of Puerto Rico and the United States from learning that Arnaldo Darío Rosado and Carlos Soto Arriví had been unlawfully brutalized and killed by officers of the Police of Puerto Rico.'" Id. (). All defendants were police officers present during the Cerro Maravilla incident. On March 28, 1985, a jury found the defendants guilty on thirty-six (36) of the forty-four (44) counts. With the exception of Colón Berríos' conviction, which was reversed on appeal, see Moreno Morales, 815 F.2d at 752, all convictions were upheld. The defendants received different sentences, which ranged from six to thirty years.2
The desire to keep the events that transpired at Cerro Maravilla secret was not limited to police officers. On October 10, 1986, an Independent Special Prosecutor filed disciplinary charges in the Puerto Rico Supreme Court for ethics violations against five different state prosecutors that participated in the initial Cerro Maravilla investigation. The complaint named the following state prosecutors: Pedro Colton Fontán, Osvaldo Villanueva Díaz, Aurelio Miró Carrión, Angel Figueroa Vivas, and Juan E. Brunet Justiniano. The Independent Special Prosecutor charged these attorneys with improper professional conduct during the investigations of the events leading to the death of Arnaldo Darío Rosado and Carlos Soto Arriví. Specifically, these attorneys were accused of hindering their own investigations and ignoring evidence supporting the proposition that Darío Rosado and Soto Arriví had been murdered. After due consideration by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, the attorneys received severe disciplinary sanctions as the Court found that they had violated various ethical obligations during their investigation of the Cerro Maravilla murders by willfully ignoring available evidence.3 See, In re Pedro Colton, 91 J.T.S. 24 (1991).4
Finally, and most importantly, on January 18, 1985, various police officers present at Cerro Maravilla at the time of the incident â Angel Luis Pérez Casillas, Rafael Moreno Morales, Nelson González Cruz, Juan Bruno González, Nazario Mateo Espada, Jaime Quiles Hernández, William Colón Martínez, and Rafael Torres Marrero â were charged, among other counts, with first degree murder for the deaths of Arnaldo Darío Rosado and Carlos Soto Arriví. Shortly thereafter, Nelson González Cruz, Juan Bruno González, Nazario Mateo Espada, Jaime Quiles Hernández, and Rafael Torres Marrero, pled guilty to second degree murder and perjury charges. William Colón Martínez pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and two (2) counts of perjury. The other two defendants went to trial. On March 18, 1988, a jury found Angel Luis Pérez Casillas innocent of all charges, and Rafael Moreno Morales guilty of second degree murder as to the death of Carlos Soto Arriví. See, Puerto Rico v. Pérez Casillas, 92 J.T.S. 171 (1992).5 The Court sentenced Rafael Moreno Morales to a prison term of twenty-two (22) to thirty (30) years pursuant to local law. Id. After Moreno Morales' sentence was affirmed on appeal, see Id., the last chapter of this dark and sad saga was finally over.
As these cases demonstrate, Carlos Soto Arriví and Arnaldo Darío Rosado were ambushed and murdered by Puerto Rico police officers. To protect themselves, the police officers involved created a conspiracy to hide the truth surrounding the murders. Furthermore, state prosecutors wilfully ignored available evidence during their investigations which, at the very least, suggested that police officers murdered Darío Rosado and Soto Arriví. These actions by the state prosecutors allowed the police officers involved to initially succeed in their conspiracy to hide the truth. The hearings on the Cerro Maravilla incident held by the Judiciary Committee of the Puerto Rico Senate ("the Committee"), which serve as the framework upon which the complaint is based in this case, were undoubtedly the catalyst force that unmasked the truth about the murders. A brief overview of the Committee hearings is also in order.
From 1976 through 1980, the NPP, presided by the plaintiff, enjoyed a majority in the Puerto Rico Senate. Control of the Senate then passed from 1981 through 1992 to the Popular Democratic Party ("PDP"), which advocates continued commonwealth status for Puerto Rico. In 1983, the Committee, under authorization provided by Puerto Rico Senate Resolution 91 of February 22, 1981, initiated public hearings into the events surrounding the shootings at Cerro Maravilla. The first phase of the hearings was conducted under the chairmanship of the respected and astute Senator Francisco Aponte Pérez, assisted by Investigator Héctor Rivera Cruz. After a short recess, the Committee reactivated the hearings, just prior to the elections of 1984. Defendant Marco Antonio Rigau assumed control of the Committee as its chairman on 1988, while its investigative efforts were conducted under the direction of defendant Edgardo Pérez Viera. After a dormant period which lasted from about 1986 to 1991, the hearings were renewed for a third time in October 1991, under the direction of Rigau and Pérez Viera. Complaint ss 16-19.
The essence of plaintiff's allegations in this case is that the Committee hearings were devised by the defendants â who are members of the PDP â "for the purpose of destroying the plaintiff's association with the NPP, his political credibility, his right to associate with a political party, his right to aspire for a political career and run for office, and his right to disassociate himself from unpopular views." Id. s 13. In particular, the plaintiff alleges that the members of the Committee "slanted and manipulated the testimony and facts" presented during the hearings to suggest that he was involved in the planning and shooting of the two youths and in subsequent efforts to cover up the event. Id. s 21.
The plaintiff alleges that the defendants used the public hearings to mount political attacks against him; that the hearings were initiated in October 1984 to interfere with his effort to be re-elected as Governor in November 1984; that they were reactivated in October 1991 to influence a referendum sponsored by the PDP scheduled for December 1991...
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...politicians seeking to undermine his credibility within his own party and with the electorate." Id. at 34 (quoting Barcelo v. Agosto, 876 F.Supp. 1332, 1348 (D.P.R.1995)) (internal quotation marks omitted) (alteration in original). Because Romero-Barcelo was a policymaker, the court held, E......
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