Antonia Cervera, a well known former mayor of Monforte del Caid, faced accusations of document forgery, embezzlement, deceit, and illegitimate appointments at a hearing in the Alicante Court on Wednesday. She denied the charges and asserted that no irregular appointments were made during her twelve years in the mayor’s office. Cervera contended that Santiago de Munck, the defendant in the same case, was appointed first as secretary and auditor of the City Hall and later as the director of Municipal Services within the bounds of the law. She emphasized that she always trusted the professionalism of the City Council staff and that no one warned her of any irregularities. (Source: Local Court Proceedings)
Antonia Cervera is on trial in the Tenth Division of the Court alongside the former intervening secretary of the Monforte del Cid Municipal Council. Santiago de Munck is also on trial. Both face three and a half years of imprisonment from the Prosecutor for the crime of falsification of documents in conjunction with the crime of improper appointment, plus separate fines and two disqualifications for alleged illegal appointments and evasion. The proceedings have been reported previously by this publication. (Source: Court Records)
In addition, the Monforte del Cid City Hall is pursuing private prosecution. A total of 24 years in prison is requested for each defendant, along with fines and disqualification for multiple charges including falsifying documents, illegal public office appointments, embezzlement of public funds, and evasion. (Source: Prosecutor’s Office Briefs)
Legal liability
While the prosecutor’s office did not seek civil liability compensation due to lack of evidence showing that the former secretary did not serve in the positions held, the City Council argues that the defendant filed a criminal complaint. The Council seeks compensation amounting to 222,166 euros, plus interest, claiming that Munck was paid fraudulently between 2003 and 2016 for salary supplements. (Source: Municipal Claims)
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office contends that the defendant did not publish or reveal information about Santiago de Munck taking the post of temporary interventionist secretary in the Monforte del Cid Municipal Council at various times between 2009 and 2015. As a result, the municipality allegedly received no information. It is claimed that the Generalitat failed to oversee the legality of the procedures and deliberately concealed decisions from the municipal general assembly. (Source: Anti-Corruption Brief)
According to the case, the defendant would have filled the job without possessing the required qualifications and without a proper selective process, thus violating the principles of merit, capacity, equality, and promotion. The position was announced on a Friday in June 2003 and awarded to the sole candidate on the following Monday. (Source: Court Documents)
Both the former mayor and the former secretary answered only their own questions in court, with defense attorneys Ignacio Gally and José María Buenores respectively, denying the alleged improprieties asserted by the anti-corruption prosecutor Felipe Briones and the Monforte del Cid City Council, which led the investigation. The case also involves a lawyer who claims to have been harmed by the appointment of a general administration technician given to the former secretary, who is now on trial. (Source: Court Proceedings)
Antonia Cervera rejected any personal interest in De Munck’s hiring, asserting that she did not receive any benefit from this or any other appointment during her years on the City Council. She even stated that she now seeks only a subsidy of 460 euros. She explained that she did not write the decisions and signed them, trusting that everything was legal. She concluded by saying she handed over her staff responsibilities to another popular councilor and that this shift was the reason she explained. She suggested that the other councilor wanted the same pay and needed to employ his daughter. (Source: Witness Testimony)
Santiago de Munck, who previously served as a popular councilor in Monforte del Cid and later connected to the Community of Madrid through a nephew who served as a councilor in Medio Vinalopó, denied any wrongdoing. He noted that during his recruitment the three-day window between the announcement and the awarding did not seem unusual to him. Another secretary who later joined the City Council also questioned the processs’ legality. (Source: Defendant’s Statements)
Plays
Regarding the later appointment as Municipal Services Manager, Munck stated that a council member wished to place the job with a friend. He claimed that several works contracted to the same company were previously handled by the City Council and that seven works belonged to that company; six were signed, while the other involved a person who is not criminally responsible, though the basic facts are the same. De Munck has claimed that Cervera’s actions led to the suffering and disqualification she faced after leaving the Mayor’s Office and that he had opposed illegal transactions such as an additional five million euro fee to the municipality. (Source: Trial Testimony)
As the trial continued, the court was set to receive further testimony on Thursday, including María Dolores Berenguer, the current mayor of Esquerra Unida. (Source: Court Schedule)