Suspended Brazilian High Court Justice Denies Sexual Harassment Claims

Suspended Superior Court of Justice Justice Marco Buzzi has submitted a 262-page defense denying sexual harassment and sexual misconduct accusations that could cost him his seat on one of Brazil's most powerful courts.

According to single-source reporting by O Globo columnist Malu Gaspar, Buzzi argues that the case against him rests on indirect testimony, office rumors and what his lawyers describe as a conspiracy tied to major cases he handled on the court. Brazil's Superior Court of Justice, known as the STJ, is the country's top court for federal-law appeals below the Supreme Federal Court.

Buzzi was temporarily removed from office in February after two sets of accusations became public. The STJ's full bench is scheduled to meet on Aug. 6 in a closed session to judge the administrative disciplinary proceeding against him.

The case endorsed by the Prosecutor General's Office, or PGR, involves two women. One is an 18-year-old who says Buzzi tried to grab her on a beach in Balneario Camboriu, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, in January while she was vacationing with the justice's family. The other is a former employee who worked as a secretary in Buzzi's chambers and reported seven episodes of harassment and sexual misconduct between 2023 and 2025.

The PGR has supported compulsory retirement, the harshest penalty available under Brazil's law governing the judiciary. Buzzi's defense says the allegations are false and has cited a medical report on erectile dysfunction, as well as what it calls his severe physical limitations after surgeries on his arms and legs and difficulty walking. Prosecutors have rejected that line of argument, according to O Globo.

Buzzi, appointed to the STJ by then-President Dilma Rousseff in 2011, sits on the court's Fourth Panel, which handles private-law disputes including business litigation. His lawyers, Paulo Emilio Catta Preta and Maria Fernanda Avila, argue that the mother of one accuser, a lawyer, helped engineer the complaint in retaliation for rulings that allegedly went against clients of her law firm.

The defense also seeks to weaken testimony from people who supported the former employee's account, including relatives, a boyfriend, aides and Buzzi's own chief of staff. His lawyers say none of them directly witnessed the seven alleged incidents, which reportedly included unwanted physical contact in areas such as a hallway and the justice's office.

In the filing, the lawyers dismiss such accounts as “office gossip,” “corridor buzz” and a “telephone game,” arguing that indirect testimony should not be enough to support a punishment they describe as a form of “civil death” for the accused.

That view has already met resistance inside the STJ. During the closed April session that opened the disciplinary proceeding, Justice Nancy Andrighi said cases of this kind are usually committed without witnesses, which makes victims' testimony especially important. The PGR cited her statement in its opinion.

Buzzi will be judged by a court composed of 26 men and six women, according to O Globo. The proceeding is administrative, not a criminal trial, but its outcome could determine whether he returns to the bench or is forced into retirement.

Source: O Globo, Malu Gaspar column.