Last night, we brought you late-breaking news from the Magistrate's Court in which the well-known defense attorney, Oscar Selgado, had been arraigned on the offense of abetment to commit murder. Police say that a man has come forward to accuse Selgado of trying to hire him to kill one of his former clients.
As far as we know, no officer of the court has been accused of such a serious offense, but police say that his accuser, Giovanni Ramirez, has given them credible pieces of evidence to substantiate his claims against Selgado.
Now, at the end of Selgado's arraignment yesterday's evening, the Magistrate's Court had already closed for business. That meant that even though Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts-Anderson granted him bail of $10,000, the business section of the court which processes bail documents was already closed, and its staff had already left the office for the day.
So, because the bail couldn't be processed that evening, police took him into custody for the night. He returned to court today to make all the necessary arrangements, and we're told that he was allowed freely leave after all documents were in order. We made attempts to reach him and his attorney for comment, both their phone numbers went to voice mail.
As we reported, Giovanni Ramirez gave police a statement in which alleged that on February 7th, he met with Selgado to hire him as his defense attorney for a firearm charge that police had brought against him. He said that Selgado agreed, but Selgado allegedly asked him for a favor. He said that Selgado asked him to kill a lady by the name of Marilyn Barnes. Selgado allegedly explained to Ramirez that Barnes had made a complaint against him to the General Legal Counsel. Selgado allegedly told him that Barnes was going to ruin his career because the General Legal Counsel would disbar him. Ramirez said that Selgado showed him a picture of Marilyn Barnes on his phone and that Selgado allegedly paid him $500 to put toward the purchase of a firearm for the killing. He allegedly told Ramirez that he wanted Barnes dead before the end of February 2019, because the date of hearing before the General Legal Counsel was scheduled for March 14th, 2019.
Ramirez alleged further that he had 2 other meetings Selgado, one of which Selgado allegedly used to show him where Barnes lived. Ramirez also said that Selgado paid him $500 that day, and another $800 during a third meeting. All these meetings are alleged to have taken place in Selgado's vehicle, and police say that Ramirez even provided them with audiovisual recordings of his meetings with Selgado. He explained to the police that the reason he was coming forward to report this incident to them was because he believed that Selgado had hired someone else to kill him after he failed to carry out the execution of Marilyn Barnes.
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