San Juan police officer dismissed following conviction for gender-based violence against colleague
Agent Alex Simón Aciar was permanently removed from the police force after being convicted of assaulting his ex-partner, also a police officer. The case adds a pending manslaughter charge to his record.
Dismissal of officer convicted of gender-based violence with open traffic fatality case
Agent Alex Simón Aciar was dismissed from the San Juan Police following an administrative investigation based on the criminal conviction he received for assaulting his ex-partner, also a member of the force. According to tiempodesanjuan.com, the measure was adopted by the Sub-secretariat for Inspection and Management Control.
The permanent dismissal was finalised a year and a half after Aciar accepted, through an abbreviated trial, a one-year suspended prison sentence. The conviction—for minor injuries aggravated by the relationship in a context of gender-based violence, aggravated threats and aggravated robbery in attempted form—was approved by guarantor judge Sergio López Martí, who acted in replacement of judge Flavia Allende.
The incident that triggered the case
The central episode occurred during the early morning of 3 November, hours after the National Sun Festival. The victim was performing duties in the event's security operation when Aciar, assigned to the Rawson 5th Departmental, allegedly sought to meet her at the location.
As the festival concluded, a colleague transported the woman to her mother's home. Aciar followed her on a motorcycle. When she got out of the vehicle, the agent began to confront her and a struggle ensued during which he allegedly attempted to remove her service weapon. The intervention of the victim's mother forced the agent to leave.
The harassment continued that same night and in the following days through text messages and voice notes containing threats. The situation led to a new complaint and Aciar was detained on 5 November, remaining in custody for 44 days.
The relationship between the two had ended approximately a year earlier, but the agent continued to harass and pursue the woman. She had already reported the situation to CAVIG before the episode that led to his detention.
Agreement and conviction
The defence, headed by lawyer María Filomena Noriega, agreed with prosecutor Roberto Ginsberg and assistant prosecutor Yanina Márquez, from the CAVIG specialised unit, on a one-year suspended prison sentence. As it was a conditionally suspended conviction, Aciar regained his freedom, although he remained subject to a restraining order and prohibition of contact with the victim.
During the investigation, intimate videos recorded during his relationship with the woman were found on the agent's mobile phone. The judge ordered the device to be sanitised once the corresponding examinations were completed.
A 2021 precedent that still has no resolution
Aciar's dismissal brings renewed scrutiny to another episode in his judicial record. On 10 February 2021, when he was 23 years old and working at the 28th Police Station, he was involved in a traffic accident that resulted in the death of a retired police officer.
Aciar was driving on Salta Street when he struck from behind Domingo Villafañe, 72, who was travelling by bicycle. The man suffered serious injuries and was transferred to Rawson Hospital, where he remained admitted to intensive care until dying six days later. The case was classified as culpable homicide and, according to the records provided, still has no final resolution.
At that time, Aciar was detained and subsequently released by decision of judge Mónica Lucero, head of the Third Correctional Court. Noriega, who also managed that defence, argued that the cyclist had suddenly changed lanes and that the agent could not avoid the impact.
Gender-based violence conviction as the basis for dismissal
Five years after the fatal accident, Aciar is removed from the San Juan Police for a different but equally conduct-related reason: the violence exercised against a member of the force itself. It was the sentence for gender-based violence that was the central element on which the administrative investigation was based, resulting in his dismissal, not the traffic case that remains without judicial closure.
Source: Google News PR — San Juan