On Monday, 24 February 2014, the National District Prosecutor announced it was appealing against the judge’s decision on the armed robbery in which engineer Francina Hungria was blinded. The prosecutors are asking the court to confirm the 30-year conviction against Jose Manuel Vidal Feliz (Memin) while opening new proceedings against Melvin Perez (alias Bululo), Jose Miguel Mora Acosta (alias Antonio and/or El Gordo), Celso Gonzalez Montero (alias Nariz) and Jose Manuel Arias (Bacan).
They were all found not guilty of the aggravated robbery and attempted murder of Hungria on 23 November 2012.
One of the men acquitted had even given a TV interview to Victor Gomez Casanovas (Victor en Vivo) where he described how Francina Hungria was attacked to take her SUV as they were trying to flee after mugging senior citizen Josefina Bogaert in the Piantini neighborhood in Santo Domingo.
National District prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso argued: “Articles 172 and 333 of the Penal Procedures Code have been violated because the court appraised the proof incorrectly, as evidenced by the fact that the judges make individual and biased observations of the proof presented and not a harmonious evaluation as was intended by the legislators,” as reported in Diario Libre. She said that the court did not take into account the physical descriptions of the assailants by victims Francina Hungria and Josefina Bogaert, or the statements from the investigators and the incomplete evidence that was presented throughout the case.
Fiscalía del Distrito Nacional apela sentencia favorece acusados caso Francina Hungría