Tucano gets rid of lawsuit that was stalled for three years.

247 - State Representative Barros Munhoz (PSDB-SP) escaped criminal charges for allegedly misappropriating and diverting public funds (33 times) during his time as mayor of Itapira (SP) between 1997 and 2004. Munhoz benefited from the statute of limitations, as he turned 70 years old on October 26, 2014. The statute of limitations expires when the State misses the deadline to potentially punish. This is the only remaining charge, after the Special Body, in August 2012, recognized the statute of limitations for other crimes he was accused of (forming a criminal organization, bid rigging, and withholding information from the Public Prosecutor's Office).

The criminal case was held up – without progress – for more than three years in the office of the then-rapporteur, Judge Armando Sérgio Prado de Toledo, 59. Toledo is suspected of having delayed the sentence to benefit the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) parliamentarian. On the 8th of this month, the Special Body of the Court of Justice of São Paulo ruled that Munhoz's punishability was extinguished and ordered the case files to be sent to the court of the district of Itapira.

The complaint against Munhoz was accepted on August 8, 2012, by a vote of 18 to 1. Toledo was the only dissenting vote, considering the complaint inept. The Special Panel adopted the dissenting vote of the reviewing judge, Luís Soares de Mello. During two sessions, Toledo did not respond to questions from judges who wanted to know how he justified the delay in the process. The crime of conspiracy expired a month before Toledo cast his vote. A disciplinary complaint against the magistrate – who retired and assumed the position of consultant to the president of Petrobras, Aldemir Bendine – is currently before the CNJ (National Council of Justice), where it could have been judged since September 2013.