Judge frees OIJ chief suspected of false detention of three U.S. citizens
June 9th, 2015 (InsideCostaRica.com) Judge Yorleny Campos Campos of the Criminal Court of Finance in Goicoechea released from custody the district chief of the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) for Quepos without conditions after an arraignment Thursday afternoon.
Prosecutors had sought three months of pre-trial detention and are appealing the judge’s decision.
The official, identified by the surnames Solano Gutiérrez is facing charges of abuse of authority, illegal detention and criminal conspiracy. He was arrested on Wednesday.
The charges stem from an incident that occurred on May 8th, when Solano with the assistance of at least one accomplice intercepted a vehicle in which three U.S. citizens, including a minor were traveling in Quepos. After stopping the vehicle, Solano requested the assistance of additional OIJ agents, two of whom – auxiliary agents from the department for prisons – responded to the scene.
Solano allegedly claimed that one of the vehicle’s occupants – a former police officer in the United States – had an international arrest warrant issued by INTERPOL.
According to prosecutors citing statements from the victims, all three U.S. citizens were subsequently detained for some 45 minutes in a holding cell of the OIJ district headquarters for Quepos, on the order of Solano.
Prosecutors allege however that Solano fabricated the story of the arrest warrant, and that no such warrant ever existed. Instead, investigators say, Solano illegally detained the U.S. citizens in an attempt to intimidate one of the victims over a business dispute.
Investigators said that telephone wiretaps revealed that one of Solano’s accomplices, surnamed Corrales was connected with another U.S. citizen in the area that had a business dispute with one of the victims. The dispute is believed to involve real estate.
Solano is already facing an ethics probe for alleged personal ties to drug traffickers, though that investigation is reportedly an administrative ethics investigation, rather than a criminal investigation.
Solano has worked for the OIJ since 1985 and has been the Quepos district chief for 13 years. He was set to retire in two weeks.
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