The judge suspended for appearing smoking in a bed during a hearing returns to duty

Criminal judge Viviana Polania will return to her position after three months of being suspended for behavior “not in accordance” with her role. The National Commission for Judicial Discipline revoked the measure that had existed against him since November 21, 2022, when a prosecutor requested to investigate it for “disrespecting” those, like him, who were part of a virtual audience in which Polania inadvertently caught the camera and was seen smoking, lying on a bed.

At first, the representative of the Attorney General’s Office pointed out that the judge had disrespected the parties for not wearing a gown, but later revealed that the discomfort was actually something else. 57 minutes into the session, the judge appeared on the screen, without a gown, with a cigarette in her mouth and lying down. Her colleague from the Attorney General’s Office described the scene as a “deplorable” image. She “she With sleepy eyes, disheveled, lying on a bed, dressed in a black T-shirt, half naked, smoking and with notorious difficulty speaking.” A behavior that, according to him and a large part of the comments that the video that went viral aroused, was not appropriate for a judge.

The objections to the image of Polania in the hearing served as an excuse for the media and citizens to search his private life. From her Instagram account they took photos that they took to Twitter and even to news pages to say that her behavior was reprehensible. Polania plays sports, she takes selfies in a bathing suit or underwear. She has responded that she is a judge, but also a free woman. This Tuesday, from the same account where her privacy has been dug up, she published the document that orders her immediate reinstatement. “What emotion!!! So many years in the judiciary!! So much work, so much love, justice!! (sic) ”, she wrote and thanked the Virgin and her mother:“ They never abandon me ”.

The judge will be able to return to her functions, but the disciplinary investigation against her continues. The magistrate who revoked the initial measure indicated that there were insufficient reasons, nor was it necessary or justifiable to remove her from office while her case is being studied. “The undersigned magistrate considers that after the review of the provisional measure ordered by the investigating official, it does not meet the requirements established in the General Disciplinary Code,” says Alfonso Cajiao Cabrera. He notes that it was not shown that the judge could hinder the process. “(There is no mention of how the person subject to discipline could interfere in the investigation process or can continue with the reiteration of the conduct under investigation, since no reference was made to background evidence, or evidence that would allow it to be understood.”

Since she was suspended, the judge has denounced that she is the victim of harassment for not complying with the parameters that, for some, public servants are supposed to carry. “It has been a persecution for many years. I think you already know my story, because of my way of dressing, ”she said last November. “Several magistrates from Cucuta have bullied me and threatened me before the process, that if I did not change my way of being they would open a disciplinary investigation. It is not that empelota appears in the hearings. I was not empelota, I had a diver, ”she assured.

This Wednesday, he recalled in statements to the media that he suffers from anxiety and that he has been medically incapacitated. She reiterated that episodes like the one she experienced worsen her condition. “It is not the first time it happens. All this makes me mistrust and discomfort. When the hearing ended, I began to feel an anxiety attack, ”she recalled this morning to Caracol Radio.