Judge Julieta Makintach resigned on Tuesday from the trial over the death of Argentine football superstar Diego Maradona after accepting the prosecutor’s request for recusal.  

Later today the parties will express their views on the continuity of the trial and the Court will resolve whether to draw a new judge or have a new trial start from scratch.

Her resignation from the case arrived at Tuesday’s hearing, where prosecutor Patricio Ferrari presented evidence to back his request that Makintach be removed from the case. That included several clips from a clandestine, unauthorized documentary on the proceedings, with the judge in the spotlight. 

The footage showed Makintach entering the first day of the trial and inside the hearing, when filming was not allowed. Several excerpts where the magistrate carried out several takes reading a script by a production team were also shown. According to Ferrari, the documentary reconstructed Maradona’s life and death, as well as recounting the judge’s life.

“I hope the trial can carry on, even without me,” said Makintach after accepting the request. “I wasn’t aware of this footage and I’m as surprised as you are about it.”

The two remaining judges in the court, Maximiliano Savarino and Verónica Di Tommaso, distanced themselves from the controversy and assured they had “nothing to do with that footage.”

Makintach was suspended from her teaching position at Universidad Austral’s Law School, after clips were leaked proving the filming had taken place in the courtroom.

On Saturday, the prosecutors on the case against Makintach received a written text by a friend of hers, who assumed responsibility for producing the footage and said that everything was done “free of charge, in an amateur and disinterested way” and only to complement an interview with the judge. On May 20 the case was suspended for a week to allow the investigation into the filming of the footage.