Brody's Notes... U. S. Attorney For Puerto Rico Says Mercado Case Will Be Prosecuted As A Hate Crime

U. S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez    Photo By The Associated Press

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Dec 16 | The United States Attorney for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Rosa Emilia Rodriguez, announced in a press conference held on Tuesday that her office has been monitoring the local case against Juan Martinez-Matos, the confessed killer of gay teen Jorge Steven López-Mercado, to make sure that it is processed as a hate crime. According to the U. S. Attorney if the local courts do not process this as a hate crime, then her office will file federal hate crime charges. 

'We are vigilant of the investigation conducted by the Puerto Rican Justice Department, but the Matthew Shepard, law, which is the federal hate crimes law, puts us in a subsidiary role because if there is a local investigation, we have to wait and be vigilant that the proper procedures are followed,' said Rodriguez, who added that if at the local level the killer is not accused of hate crime, or is found guilty or not guilty, federal authorities could still intervene. 'We’re very alert to that,' said Rodriguez, who expressed that she thinks that the case is being worked adequately."

After his initial pre-trial hearing, Martinez-Matos was ordered by the trial judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after he appeared unfit during the hearing. According to sources in the prosecutor's office, there was suspicion that Matos may have been feigning the mental trauma. The next scheduled pre-trial date in the case is January 13th, 2010.