Tatá Werneck and Ana Beatriz Nogueira win lawsuit filed by judge in the Mari Ferrer case

Comedian Tata Werneck and actress Ana Beatriz Nogueira, both from Globo, won a lawsuit filed against them by judge Rudson Marcos, from the 3rd Criminal Court of the Court of Justice of Santa Catarina, due to criticism he suffered for his role in the case Mari Ferrer. The decision can be appealed.

Mari suffered sexual assault in December 2018, and the case went viral in 2020 due to the way the accused’s defense lawyer referred to the victim. There was also the use of the term “culpable rape”, which went viral on social media and generated outrage.

In July 2021, André de Camargo Aranha, accused of the crime, was acquitted due to lack of evidence, and Rudson Marcos’ decision generated criticism, including from the two actresses, who once again remembered the term “culpable rape”.

Rudson Marcos’ defense claims that the actresses helped cause what they called a virtual lynching and even suffered death threats in messages sent over the internet.

“As a result of having been given the use of the aforementioned reasoning in the sentence, which never happened, he suffered death threats, which also affected his family, whose female members were threatened with rape”, said the magistrate’s lawyers.

Rudson Marcos asked for the payment of R$15,000 in compensation to Tatá, and R$30,000 to Ana Beatriz Nogueira.

The case was judged by judge Luiz Carlos Broering, from the 1st Special Civil Court of the TJ-SC. In both cases, the judge did not see any conduct that had caused moral damage.

For Broering, Tata and Ana Beatriz did not directly mention the judge, and made the obvious clear: there was no such thing as “culpable rape”. In their view, both only expressed their indignation over decisions in the Mari Ferrer case, without direct offense.

Wanted by F5, Ricardo Brajterman, lawyer for Tata and Ana Beatriz, celebrated the victories and explained the line of defense he adopted.

“This victory represents the protection of the constitutional principle, which guarantees freedom of expression and the right to criticism, which was made by my clients in a polite, balanced way and without aggression or incitement to hatred. In fact, aggression against all women is the defense, by anyone, of the absurdity of the thesis that culpable rape exists”, he says.