Opinion
Civil 01-1267CCC.
July 22, 2005
ORDER
Defendants' version of facts makes reference to an incident prior to the altercation in which plaintiff Reynaldo Rodríguez-Rodríguez was injured. This incident occurred the same night of November 2, 2000 and has to do with an assault by plaintiff Rodríguez-Rodríguez against minor Henry Acevedo for which he was charged with simple assault and convicted. Defendants claim that the crowd became excited due to Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez's abusive conduct toward the minor. During this trial, Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez denied having assaulted the minor. However, he was found guilty and fined the sum of five hundred dollars ($500.00) on May 10, 2002. The judgment of conviction was admitted as Exhibit C for defendants.
During his trial testimony in this case, plaintiff stated that he had appealed this conviction and that the appeal was pending. Upon being questioned on re-cross, he said that his attorney had appealed the judgment of conviction regarding the assault of Henry Acevedo and that he had seen the appeal document, yet did not know when it was appealed and knew nothing regarding the current status of said appeal.
Plaintiff's attorney, upon inquiry by the Court, after making explicit innuendos before the jury as to the existence of bias in the courts of Puerto Rico against persons in political discrimination cases, finally acknowledged that he was the attorney who handled said appeal. Accordingly, attorney Francisco González shall, by no later than JULY 26, 2005 before 9:00 A.M., file the documents of the appeal of the judgment of conviction of plaintiff Rodríguez-Rodríguez for simple assault on Mr. Acevedo (defendants' Exhibit C), as well as any resolution deciding this appeal. These documents may be submitted in Spanish due to the short notice provided and will be ordered translated into English by the Court.
SO ORDERED.