Chopin socialite gives details of how she took advantage of her husband’s carelessness to escape

In a press interview last Friday, socialite Regina Gonçalves, 88, gave more details about how she managed to escape from her husband José Marcos Chaves Ribeiro, her former driver, in January. The two were at Chopin, a luxurious building next to the Copacabana Palace, when an “oversight” happened.

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— I managed to escape carelessly. I got up, picked up my bag and left. He (husband) wanted to follow, I walked faster than him and ordered a taxi right there on the corner of Rua Fernando Mendes. I asked the taxi driver not to open the door for him (husband), as I didn’t want him to get in the same car — Regina narrated. The distance from the mentioned street to Chopin is just over 240 meters.

After escaping, the elderly woman went to her brother’s house, also in Copacabana. The building is on Rua Djalma Ulrich, where, according to a building employee, she was sheltered for two months. Last Thursday, substitute judge Claudia Leonor Jourdan Gomes Bobsin, from the 1st Court for Children, Youth and the Elderly, determined that Regina’s guardianship belongs to her husband, and demanded her return to Chopin. The decision also establishes that José Marcos Chaves Ribeiro cannot be less than 250 meters from the woman.

The struggle between Regina’s family and her partner has existed since 2016, but it was only this year that the legal battle between the two parties intensified. On January 2, Ribeiro claimed that Regina had an outburst and went to her brother’s house in Copacabana, from where she never returned. A lawsuit was filed by the socialite’s family against her husband for psychological and domestic violence suffered by her, as well as threats. The case only came to light last week, when Regina’s neighbors, residents of the luxurious Chopin, where the socialite has two apartments, reported her disappearance.

Álvaro O’hara, Regina’s nephew, highlighted his concern with the judge’s decision regarding his aunt’s guardianship. According to him. Regina suffered different types of violence from her husband.

— Doesn’t the judge, as a woman, see how absurd this is? She suffered physical and psychological violence and moral harassment. From the youngest to the oldest, justice does not respect women. This injunction is absurd, a woman who gave an opinion that disfavors the female class. At all ages, women do not have legal security, it is absurd.

On the 15th, a report signed by a judicial expert attested that it is “possible” for the socialite to be “susceptible to manipulation and the implementation of false memories”.

Businessman João Chamarelli, who said he was authorized by Regina’s family to give interviews about the case, stated that the socialite was the victim of a scam by her husband. According to him, Ribeiro was the socialite’s driver and kept her in a supposed private prison, but she managed to escape after his oversight. Chamarelli said that the case was registered with the police and, as the investigation is being carried out under judicial secrecy, he could not say more than he was authorized to say. When consulted about Thursday’s court decision, he claimed the validity of the first instance court order in favor of Regina’s family.

The husband’s lawyer, Bruno Saccani, argued that, as the process is confidential, he will not be able to comment on the decision given by the Court of Justice, but highlighted that the second-degree determination obviously prevails over the first.

Also during Friday’s interview, at Chopin, Regina recalled moments with her current husband, with whom she has been in a stable relationship for three years. In the past, she married farmer and businessman Nestor Gonçalves, with whom she lived until his death in 1994.

— One day he shouted at me, it was horrible. He left me “at zero”. Thirty or so years of savings, I insisted on having one. He took jewelry and precious stones that my husband had brought to me from Europe, Alexandrite. He took it from my safe. He didn’t dare hit. I’m from a family with a tradition from Minas Gerais that doesn’t admit it. He would never dare hit me. He pushed, dropped things on my head. From now on, with the grace of God, Divine Holy Spirit of Immaculate Conception, I will have a peaceful life at the end of my days. I was very saddened by the court’s decision. But God knows what he’s doing — said Regina.