10/09/2024 – 22:22
The Mato Grosso Court spared former state deputy Luciane Bezerra from having to return R$2 million in collective moral damages for her alleged participation in a “monthly payment” scheme. Luciane benefited from the statute of limitations.
In the action, the former deputy’s defense alleged that the claim for any conviction for collective moral damages expired on January 31, 2020. This is because, before the reform of the Improbity Law, in 2021, the statute of limitations for these processes was five years.
The case was opened based on a plea bargain agreement between the former president of the State Legislative Assembly, José Geraldo Riva, who reported monthly payments to deputies between 2007 and 2015 in exchange for support for state government projects. According to the plea bargain, the funds were diverted from public contracts.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Mato Grosso claims that Luciane received monthly bribes between 2011 and 2015. The investigation was conducted by the Civil Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of Public Assets and Administrative Probity.
According to the lawsuit, Luciane, during her term, allegedly received a monthly bribe (“monthly allowance”) paid by the Assembly “with resources diverted from the Legislative Assembly itself in simulated contracts with companies from various sectors”.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested that she be ordered to pay compensation for collective moral damages.
According to the action, between 2007 and 2015, state deputies received between R$30,000 and R$50,000 per month.
The Prosecutor’s Office accuses the former deputy of having received a global amount of R$2.4 million which, added to monetary correction and interest on arrears, “from the harmful event”, on the date the action was filed, corresponds to R$9,195,813.24.
When seeking the return of the money, in a compensation action, the MP argued that the former deputy “acted with indelible immorality and also caused enormous damage to the public coffers, which must be compensated, given its constitutional imprescriptibility”.
Luciane Bezerra was caught on video receiving cash from the chief of staff of former governor Silval Barbosa.
Judge Bruno D’Oliveira Marques, from the Specialized Court for Collective Actions in Cuiabá, considered, however, that the statute of limitations in the case prevents the search for compensation.
“The claim to seek collective moral damages is subject to a prescriptive period and does not fall within the exception of compensation for damages to the public treasury resulting from administrative impropriety,” says the ruling.
What Luciane’s defense claimed in the proceedings
The former deputy’s lawyers argued that “the facts described in the initial complaint occurred before the publication of the aforementioned law (on misconduct), with the date for the start of the prescriptive period being January 31, 2015, according to the facts reported in the initial complaint by the Public Prosecutor’s Office”.
“The claim for any possible conviction of the defendant for collective moral damages expired on January 31, 2020, given that the former article 23 of Law 8,429/1992 provided for a five-year term and the action was only filed on September 12, 2022,” the lawyers pointed out.
Luciane’s defense concluded that “it is essential to recognize the statute of limitations regarding the claim for collective moral damages, thus rejecting the request to set moral damages at R$2 million, previously suggested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office”.
‘Intention to seek collective moral damages is subject to prescriptive period’, judge decides
The Prosecutor’s Office insisted that “being part of the full compensation for damages to the public treasury, according to the case law invoked, the claim for collective moral damages, whether due to the disruption of the public machine itself or the loss of society’s trust in public agents, is equally imprescriptible”.
Judge Bruno D’Oliveira Marques concluded that Luciane’s request “is worthy of consideration”.
“The claim for the application of sanctions arising from the practice of an act of impropriety has expired, which is why the plaintiff (Public Prosecutor’s Office) requested only compensation for the damage and a ruling on collective moral damages,” argued the judge.
According to Bruno Marques, “the claim for collective moral damages made by the author (Prosecutor’s Office) is not supported by imprescriptibility, since it does not have a compensatory nature, but rather an indemnification nature resulting from the alleged illicit act committed by the defendant”.
“As can be seen, the claim for collective moral damages is subject to a prescriptive term and does not fall within the exception for compensation for damages to the public treasury resulting from administrative misconduct,” the judge highlighted. “The action was filed more than seven years after the end of the defendant’s parliamentary term, which is why the five-year term provided for in article 21 of the Popular Action Law applied, meaning that the claim for collective moral damages has expired.”
The MP can appeal.
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