Valores intachables

Those were the words used by a colleague to describe federal judge Salvador Casellas.

Valores intachables—impeccable values. That’s Mr. Fernández’s translation. But I looked it up—una tacha is a blemish.

And what if it’s true? What if the judge possesses unblemished values?

Then it’s a Greek, not a Caribbean, tragedy.

And I’ve wronged the judge.

Well, he’s no lightweight. Born in 1935, got his law degree from Harvard in 1961, served in the army for two years, worked at Puerto Rico’s most prestigious law firm, was appointed federal judge in 1994, and senior judge in 2005.

Do the math. The man is in his late seventies, and has had a distinguished career. Only now does he have…

…una tacha.

Well, we were discussing him at the dinner table last night. And Raf, as always, has a twist on the events. Carmen, he thinks, wanted a divorce. Pablo was jealous. He sets up a carjacking, and one of the guns “stolen” was a rare weapon, called a “cop killer.”

Goes through bulletproof vests.

Oh, and by the way, that’s the type of weapon that dispatched Carmen.

So, goes the theory of Mr. Fernández, Carmen goes through with her plans. She leaves home briefly, but comes back because her daughter is distressed. She’s reading by the pool. Pablo comes out, shoots her between the eyebrow and in the left chest.

Then empties 14 or 15 more shots in her. 

He goes to the bathroom—where apparently the blood was detected. Takes a shower. Then goes to visit Daddy.

Who knows nothing.

Pablo acts normally—some guys can. Leaves after a while, and then comes home to see the “intruder” leaping the fence.

A ten-foot cyclone fence with razor wire on top and vegetation on both sides that is intact with no sign of trampling.

Pablo fires the shots needed to establish an alibi of discovering an intruder, goes inside and calls the police. Then Daddy.

Or maybe the reverse order.

Then, this honorable judge, who has worked and struggled a lifetime, makes the mistake that will cost him his reputation.

He goes to the crime scene.

Why?

He doesn’t trust the cops.

And he loves his son.

If it happened that way, if this honorable man instinctively knew that the cops would make a botch of it and raced to safeguard his son, then yes, it’s a tragedy.

Not a Greek, not a Puerto Rican tragedy.

A tragedy for us all.