Public Ministry requests preventive detention against professor charged with sexual harassment of student

The Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of the National District postponed the hearing for this Saturday, May 2nd.

Santo Domingo.– The Public Ministry requested a court to impose preventive detention, as a coercive measure, against a professor accused of engaging in sexual harassment to the detriment of a student from an educational center in the National District.

The coercive measure was requested against the defendant Inocencio Lebrón Montero, who worked as a mathematics teacher for the adolescent.

According to the investigation, the defendant took advantage of the relationship of trust derived from his condition as a teacher to initiate a progressive approach towards the victim.

The record indicates that, subsequently, he exerted emotional pressure on the student in order for her to agree to intimate behaviors, despite the fact that she had expressly stated her refusal.

The Public Ministry establishes that, in that context, several encounters occurred inside the defendant’s vehicle, where he allegedly made inappropriate touching to the detriment of the adolescent and insisted on having sexual relations, which the victim refused.

The investigation also indicates that the accused would have repeated the reported behaviors, maintaining emotional pressure on the minor.

As part of the evidence provided, the prosecuting body presented a psychological evaluation conducted on the victim by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif), which establishes emotional indicators compatible with situations of vulnerability.

The defendant was arrested on April 22nd, by virtue of an arrest warrant issued against him by the Coordination of the Instruction Courts of the National District.

Prosecutors Adalgisa Tavares and Mariela Ramos, assigned to the Gender Violence and Sexual Crimes Prevention Unit of the National District, filed the motion with the request for a coercive measure against the accused.

The hearing was adjourned by Judge Lissa Veras, of the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of the National District, to this Saturday, May 2, at the request of the defense, which requested more time to prepare its means of defense.

The Public Ministry gave the case the legal qualification of violation of articles 330 and 333, literal D, of the Dominican Penal Code, as well as article 396, literal C, of Law 136-03, which creates the Code for the Protection and Fundamental Rights of Children and Adolescents.