{"id":511298,"date":"2026-06-15T11:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/judge-sends-espaillat-brothers-to-trial-no-legal-variation\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:49:30","slug":"judge-sends-espaillat-brothers-to-trial-no-legal-variation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/dominican-news\/justice\/judge-sends-espaillat-brothers-to-trial-no-legal-variation\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge sends Espaillat brothers to trial; no legal variation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Santo Domingo.\u2013 <\/strong>Judge Raymundo Mej\u00eda<\/strong>, of the First Instruction Court of the National District, sent siblings Antonio Espaillat L\u00f3pez<\/strong> and Maribel Espaillat de Veras<\/strong>, owners of the Jet Set nightclub<\/strong>, to trial this Monday, accused of involuntary manslaughter<\/strong> for the collapse of the establishment’s roof, which caused the death of 236 people<\/strong> and left more than a hundred injured in the early hours of April 8, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon issuing the order to open the trial, the magistrate rejected the request of some plaintiffs who sought to change the legal classification of the case file to voluntary manslaughter<\/strong> through the concept of eventual intent, maintaining the accusation supported by the Public Prosecutor’s Office under articles 319 and 320 of the Dominican Penal Code, relating to involuntary or reckless manslaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the full reading of the decision, the court concluded that it is up to a trial court to assess the criminal liability of the defendants<\/strong> regarding the alleged negligence attributed to the maintenance, supervision, and modifications made to the structure where the entertainment center operated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be interested in: <\/strong>Family members hold prayer before hearing that will define the Jet Set case ruling<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, the judge declared admissible the complaints and civil party constitutions filed by victims and family members who met the legal requirements, in addition to admitting the testimonial, documentary, expert, and material evidence provided by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the evidentiary elements presented by the defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the coercive measures, the magistrate maintained the RD$50 million economic guarantee imposed on each of the defendants, as well as the travel ban and the obligation to report periodically to the authorities on the 30th of each month. He indicated that the accused have complied with the requirements of the process, so there were no reasons to modify the current measures.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The decision also confirmed the permanence of the precautionary measures on goods and assets linked to the case. These include freezing orders, sequestration, precautionary attachment, garnishment, and judicial mortgages for up to an amount of RD$500 million, with the purpose of guaranteeing eventual economic reparation in favor of the victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the companies Inversiones E & R SRL, Radiocadena Comercial SRL, Difusora Hemisferio SRL, and Inversiones CCP Dos SA, as well as Evelyn Espaillat and Ana Grecia L\u00f3pez, were admitted as third-party civil defendants, and they must respond during the trial phase regarding the civil claims derived from the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decision concludes the preliminary stage of the judicial process<\/strong> and the file will be sent to the corresponding court for the trial on the merits, where the evidence will be debated and the criminal liability of the accused will be determined in one of the most shocking cases in the recent history of the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Santo Domingo.\u2013 Judge Raymundo Mej\u00eda, of the First Instruction Court of the National District, sent siblings Antonio Espaillat L\u00f3pez and Maribel Espaillat de Veras, owners of the Jet Set nightclub, to trial this Monday, accused of involuntary manslaughter for the collapse of the establishment’s roof, which caused the death of 236 people and left more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":511299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[36952],"tags":[40020,43158,41214,43987,40916],"class_list":["post-511298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-justice","tag-antonio-espaillat","tag-espaillat-brothers","tag-maribel-espaillat","tag-merits-judgment","tag-trial"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-290K","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copia-de-Copia-de-Post-de-Instagram-Feliz-Cumpleanos-Sencillo-Minimalista-Azul-1000-x-500-px-2026-06-15T114655.612.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"Yoan Silverio","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/cropped-Captura-de-pantalla-2024-03-07-a-las-9.52.03\u202fp.-m-96x96.jpg","categories_name":["Justice"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copia-de-Copia-de-Post-de-Instagram-Feliz-Cumpleanos-Sencillo-Minimalista-Azul-1000-x-500-px-2026-06-15T114655.612.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}