01/14/2024 – 22:17
Compulsorily retired for using her position to try to release her son arrested for drug trafficking, judge Tânia Garcia de Freitas Borges, from the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso do Sul, received R$ 925 thousand in gross amounts in 2023. Of the total, R $489,000 was extra money that boosted the paycheck. With discounts, she had net income of R$715,000 last year.
The data is available on the Court of Justice’s Transparency Portal. Wanted by Estadão, the Court has not yet ruled. In the section where personnel expenses are disclosed, the court informs that “none of its collaborators, judges or judges receive more than the constitutional ceiling”.
The Constitution limits the public service allowance to what a minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) earns, which currently corresponds to R$41,650.92, but magistrates receive allowances that are not included in the calculation. Compensation funds (such as assistance for transportation, food, housing and health) and occasional benefits (such as 13th salary, reimbursement for delayed vacations and any extraordinary services provided) are counted outside the ceiling, paving the way for so-called “super salaries”.
The judge's base salary is R$36,282.27 per month, but she also received R$3,628.23 per month as compensation. In November, exceptionally, she was entitled to an additional R$36,282.27 as “casual benefits”.
Tânia also received the bonus for length of service – a benefit that entails an automatic increase of 5% in salary every five years. Between February and October, the value was R$30 thousand. In November, it rose to R$40 thousand and, in December, it reached R$100 thousand per month.
The additional payment for length of service, known as a five-year period, was abolished by the 2003 Pension Reform, but some courts authorize retroactive payments to judges who began their careers before the change came into force. As shown by the Estadãoan action in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) tries to put an end to the leftovers.
The judge was compulsorily retired by the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the body that administers and supervises the Judiciary, in December 2021.
She was already removed from her position during the disciplinary process. The counselors concluded that the judge violated the principles of integrity, dignity, honor, decorum and independence.
Compulsory retirement is the greatest disciplinary punishment provided for misconduct by judges. Despite the penalty, they are entitled to benefits proportional to their length of service.
The case that led to the judge’s compulsory retirement happened in 2017.
She was accused of using her position to exert influence for the release of her son, Breno Fernando Solon Borges, on different fronts – from the custody hearing to the transfer from Três Lagoas prison, in Cuiabá, to a psychiatric clinic.
When she obtained judicial authorization for the transfer, on the grounds that he urgently needed psychological treatment, she went to the penitentiary escorted by civil police officers to get her son out of jail. Breno Fernando was still taken by her to the family home, where he spent hours before being admitted.
In testimony, the director of the prison unit said that he felt “pressured”. In messages exchanged with the judge in the case, in an attempt to confirm the transfer order, he stated that “she even came with police officers already threatening arrest for disobedience” even before receiving the court order and complying with the procedures usually followed by the State Agency of Administration of the Penitentiary System for releases.
When the judge became the target of the investigation for allegedly favoring her son, her lawyer, André Borges, reacted to the suspicions and denied that she had used her position for private purposes.
He argued that Tânia was in prison to enforce the court order determining the transfer of her son since she had been appointed curator in the case.
The lawyer also argued that the functional car and the civil police escort were necessary to guarantee the physical integrity of the magistrate, who had been a corrections officer at the prison unit.
“The case judged today is the same in which Dr. Tânia had been acquitted by the State Court. We will certainly challenge the decision, because it is not sustainable. We will never stop demanding a fair and correct trial for this magistrate, which has not yet occurred”, claimed the lawyer when the CNJ decreed her compulsory retirement.
The judge appealed to the Federal Supreme Court to try to annul the CNJ's decision and resume her position.
The request was denied in a preliminary analysis by Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, but the merits are still pending judgment.
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