The Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) is currently in hot water for their alleged illegal espionage on star goalkeeper Keylor Navas, but there is yet another case winding through the courts that is casting this law enforcement agency, which has considerable power in Costa Rica, in a negative light.

In this criminal case, four OIJ agents by the last names of Quesada, Luna, Valerio, and Acosta stand accused. The four agents are assigned to the Homicides Section of the OIJ, and the charges against them include assault, extortion and police brutality. According to Carlos Barquero of daily tabloid Diario Extra, court records suggest that the agents violently pistol-whipped and stomped on a welder by the last name of Mendez at his home in the southern suburbs of San Jose.

The accused agents were reportedly looking for a suspect named Owen Stevens, who is wanted in a case involving the revenge killing of a malicious corrections officer. It is not clear what connection Mendez has to this case; in fact, the accused agents may have been at the wrong address. They realized their mistake once at the main office of the OIJ near downtown San Jose, and that is when Mendez says the agents made a very poor attempt at negotiating a cover up.

According to court testimony by Mendez, the four agents grabbed three other partners and cornered him into a desolate cubicle. The agents allegedly mentioned that he could walk away free at that point, although he had not been charged with any crime; however, should Mendez enter a complaint, the agents would find a way to plant drugs on him or else implicate him in a narcotics case.

Mendez did not take up the agents on the lopsided offer and asked his sister, who happens to work in the clerical section of the OIJ, to help him draft a complaint. When Mendez’ sister went to her boss to ask for the proper forms to file in a complaint, she actually ran into agent Quesada, who is considered the mastermind of this sordid affair. The case is exacerbating the already tarnished image of the OIJ in Costa Rica; as previously reported in this publication, the OIJ has been previously accused of interfering with press freedom.