The ex-partner of the provincial commissioner of the National Police of Santa Cruz TenerifeLuis Felipe San Martín Fernández-Marcote, whom he has denounced for mistreatment, demands more severe measures than those applied by the judge of the Violence against Women court. It is not enough that he stays away at least 500 meters and is prohibited from communicating with her. The woman demands that the police officer be given a telematic monitoring bracelet. This device, which more than three thousand abusers carry in Spain, emits a radio frequency signal that warns in case the dictated restraining measures are not complied with.
The woman already tried it on Thursday, when she testified in court number one for Violence against Women in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. She did so through her lawyer, but her request was dismissed. She did not agree to the demand to install a telematic control bracelet against the mistreatment of Luis Felipe San Martín.
“The limitation that the adoption of a measure of these characteristics implies for the person under investigation must be assessed and weighed, since it restricts his fundamental rights, such as freedom of movement and communication,” the judge explains in the preliminary proceedings after taking statement to the provincial commissioner of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The prosecutor, for his part, limited himself to requesting the restraining order and incommunicado detention. In no case was it necessary to require the telematic control bracelet.
In the reasoning of the provision, the magistrate understands that since the main commissioner resides in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and his ex-partner resides in Gran Canaria It is not necessary to impose this device. «The measure to be adopted, as a complementary control mechanism, of the telematic bracelet is not considered accurate at this time», he concludes. However, Luis Felipe San Martín’s ex-partner understands, through her lawyer, that the argument of the parties’ residence on different islands is not enough to guarantee the physical and mental integrity of the injured party.
The reason is that the woman makes frequent trips from Gran Canaria to Tenerife, especially for reasons of her work in the south of the island, where she acts as administrative representative of commercial companies. Luis Felipe San Martín’s ex-partner fears that on one of those trips she could suddenly meet the commissioner.
The woman told the judge that she feels afraid from the moment she was allegedly threatened by Luis Felipe San Martín with his service weapon in an episode of jealousy that occurred in December 2021 in the home that the provincial commissioner uses due to his position in Santa Cruz of Tenerife.
The affected woman frequently travels between Gran Canaria, where she resides, and Tenerife for work reasons.
As a result of the complaint filed by the woman, the General Directorate of the National Police suspended Luis Felipe San Martín from employment and salary on Thursday while requiring him to hand over his service weapon and badge. In addition, the judge established in his order as a precautionary measure the obligation to hand over the pistol.
As seen in the video recorded by the woman and presented as the main evidence before the judge, the provincial commissioner, whose face cannot be seen, but whose voice can be heard, uses his service pistol, an HK USP-C, nine millimeters to intimidate his then partner, a Lithuanian woman residing in Canary Islands for more than five years.
In the audiovisual file, incorporated into the case, it is clearly seen how Luis Felipe San Martín has one of his fingers on the hammer of the short gun, prepared to shoot, in a very low position. Meanwhile, the woman repeatedly asks him, begging him between sobs, to put down the gun. The policeman ignores him and insists with a question: “Are you telling me the truth?”; “Tell me the truth”. For the judge, from such comments it seems evident that the scene is typical of jealous behavior on the part of the man.
The judge has granted credibility to the woman’s testimony, who he assures that she exposes some “strong demonstrations”. The statement about the threat, he adds, “appears objectified and corroborated with the recording included in the procedure.”
The chief inspector who reported the case, Francisco Moar, head of the Judicial Police Brigade and partner of Luis Felipe San Martín at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife police station, assured the agents of the Family and Women’s Care Unit ( UFAM) and before the judge who recognizes in the video both the voice of the main commissioner investigated and the victim, since he knows both.
In her appeal she warns about the fear and anguish that meeting him again causes her.
The provincial commissioner and the chief inspector maintain a conflictive professional relationship. The most relevant confrontation occurred when Moar was removed from the investigation of the Mediator Case, which investigated a corruption scheme through the payment of bribes and extortion to access European aid and community subsidies for agriculture. During the course of this investigation, agents from the Computer Crimes Unit of the National Police reported Moar for workplace harassment. However, the Internal Affairs agents did not appreciate, after their investigations, irregular behavior on the part of the chief inspector. The matter was closed.
The complaint that motivated the suspension of Luis Felipe San Martín as provincial commissioner was filed by the chief inspector at noon on December 6 before the UFAM Investigation group. Moar clarified that he became aware of the case in the exercise of his duties and that he proceeded to present it out of “a moral, ethical and professional duty.”
It was the victim who contacted Moar by WhatsApp on October 16 and asked for a meeting in person to tell him about a case of gender violence, according to the chief inspector’s story. Days later the meeting took place, where the woman explained the situations she had experienced with the provincial commissioner. She was afraid to report him. Moar convinced her to give a statement and confirm it if he filed a complaint for sexist violence against her boss, the provincial commissioner Luis Felipe San Martín.
The ex-partner of the head of the National Police in Santa Cruz de Tenerife also reported two other violent episodes with Luis Felipe San Martín: one in Barcelona and another in The Palmswhere, according to what he told the judge, he even received a push.
In a subsequent meeting with Moar, the former partner of the provincial commissioner, he gave the chief inspector a pendrive that contained the video and a frame, which have been incorporated as main evidence in the case being processed by the number one court of Violence against Women of Santa Cruz. from Tenerife.
