Guillermo Pérez Roldán, during the promotion of the documentary Star +. Photo courtesy of BOURKE
Justice gave the right to the former Argentine tennis player Guillermo Perez Roldan and ruled that the crimes he denounced against his father, Raúl Pérez Roldán, they have not prescribed and can be investigatedeven if they happened a few decades ago.
The lawyer Juan Ignacio Pascual, who represents the two complainants – Guillermo Pérez Roldan and also the former tennis player Graciela Pérez – confirmed that Clarione that both the prosecutor and the judge dealing with the case have stated that the offenses are not prescribed and must be investigated.
Guillermo Pérez Roldán accuses his father and former coach of physical and psychological assaults suffered from childhood and cheating him by losing the income he earned during his 10 years as a professional in which he won nine titles.
The former number 13 in the world rankings (he joined us in 1988), filed a complaint together with Graciela Pérez, first graduate of the Raúl Pérez Roldán tennis academy, and who also accused of abuse in the time spent together. Both have ratified their actions before the federal judge of Azul, Gabriel Di Giulio, who, in agreement with the prosecutor Santiago Eyherabide, has established that a criminal action is in place to investigate the crimes that have damaged the complainants when they were minors.
The crimes reported are: serious and minor injuries, reduction to servitude, sexual abuse, illegitimate deprivation of liberty and unfaithful administration. The prosecutor understood that the crime of money laundering did not occur, but the judge did not exclude the possibility of verifying whether this crime existed.
The judge did not resolve this complaint and ordered this complaint to be tested. If there is money laundering, this section of the case will be dealt with by federal justice.
The complainants, for their part, had asked that the matter be treated as a case of crimes against humanity to avoid the prescription, but the judge rejected it.
Meanwhile, Di Giulio has established that complaints of physical and psychological abuse must be investigated by local, non-federal justice, for which he declared himself incompetent and decided to pass the case to the provincial justice with jurisdiction in Azul. In any case, the defense will try not to divide the case.
In its resolution, the judge ordered precautionary measures, extended the precautionary measure of panic button to Graciela Pérez, who lives in Tandil like Raúl, and ordered a ban on contact and approaching both Graciela Pérez and Guillermo Pérez Roldan, his wife and children.
“Raúl Horacio Pérez Roldán will be informed that the non-compliance or the violation of this provision will count in the configuration of the crime of disobedience and will lead to the re-evaluation of the procedural situation for the purpose of the specifically verified behavior”, says the resolution judge.
The strong history of abuse denounced by Guillermo Pérez Roldán
The case was only made known in 2020, when Guillermo Pérez Roldán decided to tell the strong story in an interview with The nation. There, he revealed that today he is dedicated to teaching tennis in Chile, his country of residence, and that although he has played at the highest level, he has nothing more economically.
As he commented, the profits made in those years are gone, due to a scam suffered by his father and former coach, Raúl Pérez Roldán. Not only that: he also denounced that during his time as a tennis player he was repeatedly subjected to physical abuse which came to include “tape on a bed” or “punch in the face” for losing a game.
“If I told you difficult things, like losing a game, walking into a room and having a pineapple stick your fist in the middle of your mouth. And I’ve been through them all, huh. Either get stuck in a bathroom or be tied to a bed. Or a four or five million dollar robbery. Everything I won playing tennis, I didn’t get it the next day. My old lady (Liliana Sagarzazu) and my old man signed to withdraw money from my accounts, “she revealed at the time.
Pérez Roldán assured that the physical abuse he suffered was known outside the family. “The problem was with me. And with my sister in the beginning. But when I started billing on my own, my sister took a back seat. I have to say she was a fucking technician who gave birth well, but a father of shit“he counted.
“It could not be that winning a game was a relief and at certain times, instead of having fun at 19, I never gave up. I told him: ‘I continued on your way, when technically I need you I call you. field, go to the horses, what do I know, but leave me alone ‘”, he said. And he added: “One year I won three ATP tournaments, in 1987. I was a junior, I was 17! After winning Buenos Aires I go to Itaparica, in the first round I take a guy named Tore Mainnecke, I played on a ‘ other surface, I was from a super slow, it was hot, I lost and (after the game) He got on the bed and started shitting me with a whip because he said I didn’t move well. “
Pérez Roldán said the shots stopped later, but another type of mistreatment began: “I grabbed it after winning the Palermo tournament, I don’t remember if it was in 89. I sat on the plane and I said to him: ‘Look: from next year I want to travel alone, I don’t want to travel with you anymore. Either I throw them all away, I lose the rankings or I don’t keep the racket anymore. there he started having fun, until I got married for the first time at 24: He tied up all the money and took it from me, without telling me anything“.
“They were family accounts with three signatures. The ATP checks came in my name. By signing two, father and mother, they could take the money … Trust your old man. I never knew where the money was“added Guillermo, who also assured that when he perceived the situation it was already too late.
“I finished my degree and after three months he was poor. I didn’t have a car. I discovered the scam in 1994. It went like this: I called the foreign bank, asked for money to go on vacation and it was gone. And there were several million dollars. We also had houses, racehorses, a restaurant, an apartment, etc. I don’t count or live with that and I know I’ll never have it “, she remarked.
Raúl Pérez Roldán’s answer
Raúl Pérez Roldán broke the silence a few hours after the denunciation of his son Guillermo, who shook the world of tennis and sport.
“I do not want to express any opinion, no defense, much less against my son or in my favor. This is a family matter that needs to be organized in the family, but as with almost any opportunity, journalism hurts. Besides, I’m not going to give an opinion. And as I repeat, I do not know you, if I did know you I would tell you exactly the same thing and I have no intention of expressing an opinion “, Pérez Roldán began talking with the same journalist who interviewed Guillermo.
When asked if he intended to speak with Guillermo to approximate the positions, Pérez Roldán Sr. was blunt: “I will not speak to anyone first to let them know if I will speak or not. It is, as I have done again, a absolutely familiar issue. Not one, not half, not a quarter of a word against Guillermo or in defense of what he said. We will meet at some point. Chile is complicated with the coronavirus, so are we, and this is not it’s time. You can’t travel. So this, without a doubt, can’t be discussed on the phone and we’ll see. That’s all. “
The story of Guillermo Pérez Roldán has reached Star +
Two years after Guillermo Pérez Roldán, one of the promises of Argentine tennis in the late 80s, decided to reveal the dramatic relationship with his father, his story arrived last month to a series of documentaries on the Star + platform and that he also added the two suicide attempts that caused that trial.
In one of the most dramatic moments of the series, Guillermo revealed that he attempted suicide at the age of 18, driven by the situation of extreme physical and psychological violence he had to endure.
Source: Clarin
