Case of Plácido Domingo: the legal frontiers of sexual abuse and harassment

• The second complaint.Once new accusations against Sunday
• The content of the accusations. "I was always touching you"
• Angela Turner Wilson and Melinda McLain. Who are the accusers?

How to legally interpret the new accusations against Plácido Domingo for his conduct before former co-stars? Some previous ideas: first, the facts that are reported with more precision have prescribed; second: the numerous anonymous accusations cited by the AP agency lack criminal value (and even those attributed to baritone Robert Gardner and manager Melinda McLaine are quite relative); and third: Domingo has expressed his innocence, so the accusations cannot be taken for granted.

However, the accusation that was made known yesterday with singer Angela Turner Wilson as a source is more serious than that made by Patricia Wulf in August. So, the behavior that Wulf described (same as Melida McLaine now denounces) corresponds to the figure of sexual harassment. Instead, the incident that Turner Wilson recounts (which says that Sunday approached her back, put her hand in her bra, squeezed painfully and left) falls into the category of sexual abuse .

"In Spain, sexual harassment at work has penalties of between three and five months if the relationship between the parties is of parity and between five and seven months if there is a hierarchy relationship. For some years the harassment is also contemplated in areas that are not those of work, "explains lawyer Tsevan Rabtan. In the case denounced by AP, that difference is also problematic, since the alleged aggressor had no formal authority relationship over the singers, but he did have an enormous professional prestige that could be interpreted as a form of hierarchy. "I understand that this is a quasi-hierarchy and that it may have a social relevance, but at the legal level we cannot consider it. Among other things, because that would go against the freedom of any person with relevance. If they wanted to link, they would have to go with a notary, "explains the criminal José María Garzón. "Among adults, these informal hierarchies are not usually taken into account," Rabtan adds.

The debate about sexual harassment also has to do with its borders: what differentiates a stalker from a person feels an erotic and / or romantic interest in a co-worker and manifests it in a dumpy, slightly heavy way ? "If there is an unequivocally expressed rejection and, despite this, there is insistence, we are on the road to harassment. That is the objective component. Then, there is the subjective component that has to do with the fact that such behavior affects the emotional stability of the victim, "explains María Ángeles Jaime de Pablo, president of the Themis Women's Law Association.

Last August, Domingo responded to the first AP report saying that the perception of the acceptable had changed in 20 years . The tenor was criticized for it, but, deep down, he was right: those borders have changed and not only morally. "For years we are in a process whereby the penalties are aggravated and whereby acts that were not considered criminal now are," Rabtan explains. Should the moral judgment of the public condition that deferred ? Let each one decide.

And the abuse? Abuse is a more serious matter, although the case reported by Angela Turner Wilson is only a non-consensual contact that cannot be considered aggression . "There is no violence or intimidation in the events described," Rabtan explains. In Spain, such acts can receive penalties of between one and three years. In the United States, each state has a different code.

Is the border clear in the case of abuse? What happens if someone tries to kiss a work colleague on the lips at a party and is not reciprocated? Can you get into a problem?

"Criminal law is to delimit those borders," Garzón explains. "I would say that it is not the same to try to kiss, to insist on kissing and, in the end, steal the kiss ... In any case, the law is generous and social relations are even more generous and understand the actions of people in context. But it is true that sometimes we are tempted to make a right so dense and so thick that it becomes a limitation of the person. "

There remains a question to raise: both Wulf and Turner Wilson have suggested that their careers as singers were harmed by the incidents they denounce. The two ended up losing professional status in the years after their encounter with Domingo. Are these complaints legally relevant? "They could be relevant to request compensation, but you should be very cautious," Rabtan replies.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Opera
• music
• Placido Domingo
• culture
• sexual harassment

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