In a lengthy statement, Henry Borel’s mother, Monique Medeiros, denied that she had been negligent in protecting her son against her ex-partner, Jairo Sousa Santos Júnior. The teacher has been in prison for nine months for her son’s murder, but her only testimony so far had been to the chief in charge of the case, days after the 4-year-old boy’s death in March last year.
Monique said that former councilor Jairo Souza Santos Junior threatened and verbally attacked her, that he fired professionals who worked with her, such as the personal trainer, out of jealousy, who offended her for the clothes she wore and who even hanged her former partner and destroying suitcases, hurling them against the wall in an argument.
The teacher also revealed that the politician forced her to take prescription drugs with the supposed justification that she would actually need to sleep at dawn to not communicate with other men and said that she suspected that she was being medicated without knowing it by her ex-partner.
“First I saw a little white powder at the bottom of the glass, I noticed it, but I thought it was from the grape. Until one day I saw him in person macerating pills inside my cup. I assumed the other times I saw the powder it was the pill in my cup,” she said.
The deposition began around 11:30 am and ended at 10:00 pm. About the night Henry died, Monique claimed that she was sleeping and that it was Jairo who woke her up.
“He woke me up scaring me and I jumped out of bed because he said my son was sick. I believe my son was breathing yes. I gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and I could feel his lungs inflating and deflating,” she said.
Asked by Judge Elizabeth Machado Louro what she thought had happened, Monique said: “Honestly, I think three people know what happened, my son, God and Jairinho. Because he woke me up. If anything, it was him. We will verify that I was asleep and he was awake”.
THE CNN found that the way to prove that the true version is of who Jairo was who found Henry’s body, in case the process goes to the popular jury, is through Leniel’s testimony, in which he reveals that this was the version told to him by the couple still in the hospital. Monique said that she was trained, had to tell a lying version that she had dozed off and was lying back, and that she was the one who had found Henry’s body, not Jairo.
Jairinho’s defense asked the questions, but claiming tiredness, Monique preferred not to answer. They asked if she had evidence of her father’s failure to act, if she had ever heard about reports of aggression at school, if Henry had a history of liver disease, if he might have been the victim of medical malpractice and also technical details about the forensic report.
It will be up to the judge to decide whether Monique and Jairo go to the popular jury. But before that, she must hear from the former councilor again. He refused to speak because he claimed that technical problems with reports prepared by experts were not brought to the instruction hearings. Elizabeth Louro told CNN that “he will be heard on another date”. Only after that will she make the decision.
Threats and intimidation in prison
Late in the afternoon, after five hours of testimony, Monique reported threats to her, her family and lawyers. She said she suffers inside the jail and was bullied by inmates, a prison guard and lawyers before and after her arrest.
“There was a procedure inside the jail, all the prisoners stayed in the courtyard and I was threatened by more than 20 people”, said Monique.
Then the judge asked: “Have you been heard? Because I commanded them to hear it.” She replied: “I was not heard. They said I was a child killer. They said they were going to kill me, that they were going to hit me in the ear, that they were going to throw boiling water, I heard from the inmate inside my cell that I wouldn’t wake up anymore, that they were going to put a cloth on my face and punch me and that I wouldn’t wake up anymore.”
Monique also says that she asked to file a complaint on New Year’s Eve against this inmate and this was denied by the prison administration. The judge replied: “You can rest assured that I will personally take all measures for your safety” and asked the defendant to write down on a paper the name of the inmate who threatens her and shares the same cell.
She also reported that a prison guard suggested that she should feel ‘thankful’ for her father-in-law, state deputy Dr. Jairo, Jairinho’s father. That the woman said this emphatically, as a form of threat in jail. THE CNN questioned the Penitentiary Administration Department about the alleged threats and is awaiting a response.
Monique also said she was intimidated by one of the lawyers who is part of Jairinho’s defense, Flávia Froes. She reported that she received a visit from the woman on January 7, posing as her lawyer, in the Benfica complex. Flavia would have arrived introducing herself as a friend of Monique’s lawyers and took “a pile of papers with all the expert reports and lots of sheets” with information about Henry.
She would have asked the boy’s mother for his medical history and suggested that Monique make a joint statement with her ex-partner, which was denied by the teacher. THE CNN sought out the lawyer and awaits return.
That wasn’t the first problem with lawyers. Before that, Monique said she was intimidated by her and Jairinho’s former lawyer, André França. She said that he would charge R$2.3 million to defend the couple, making Jairo transfer a house in Mangaratiba to his name. She also said that André would have invented a lying version about the night of Henry’s death, asking Monique to supposedly reverse the roles, saying that she is the one who had come across Henry fallen and not Jairo.
Monique said that she underwent days on end of preparation to tell a version that did not match the facts and convey the image that she had a good relationship with Jairo despite the abuse and aggression.
Monique asked the judge to open an investigation against her former lawyer, André França, considering his conduct as criminal. The judge said that it would not be up to her to do that, but that at that time she had already officiated at the OAB.
THE CNN contacted França and had no response at the time of writing this report.
Source: CNN Brasil
