The judge who considered there was no urgency to arrest those accused of a gang rape in Copacabana is on probation. Vitor Calil Lustoza was on Judicial Duty on February 7th, when he received requests from the Civil Police for preventive detention against four men.
He claimed there was a lack of “temporal circumstances” that would justify the issuance of the warrants by the duty officer and stated that the request could be evaluated by the Natural Court.
Furthermore, the magistrate who took office on January 28th highlighted that the Public Ministry of Rio also expressed its opinion of “not knowing” about the prisons, under penalty of offending the principle of natural judgment.
Prosecutor Mariana Mascarenhas Ferreira Gomes stated that there was no justification for presenting requests for arrest during judicial duty on February 7th, since the events occurred on January 31st and the investigation concluded six days later.
According to investigations, on January 31, a 17-year-old teenager was gang-raped by Bruno Felipe dos Santos Allegretti, 18; Matheus Veríssimo Zoel Martins, 19; João Gabriel Xavier Bertho, also 19; and Vitor Hugo Simonin, 18; and also by a minor. The case happened on January 31, 2026.
According to the Civil Police, the victim was attracted by a minor who is her ex-boyfriend. In testimony, the young woman said that she refused to have sexual relations with her other friends, but was forced by the group. She also said that the men prevented her from leaving the apartment’s bedroom.
The investigation shows that the teenager was attacked by everyone involved, with sessions of slaps and kicks. She arrived at the police station on the day of the crime with bruises and injuries to her genital area.
