Judge diagnosed with autism at age 47 went viral when defending gecko’s right to ‘walk around walls’ in SC | Santa Catarina

A decision by judge Alexandre Morais da Rosa, aged 50, who discovered autism at the age of 47 and participates in sessions at the Court of Justice of Santa Catarina with an identification cord for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), went viral in 2013 when defending the rights of geckos.

“A gecko has every right to roam the external walls of houses in search of mosquitoes and other small insects that make up its diet,” the decision said.

At the time, an import company was ordered to pay R$664 to a consumer in the capital of Santa Catarina whose air conditioning burned out after contact with one of these small reptiles.

To the g1this Tuesday (2), Rosa recalled that the case attracted a lot of attention at the time andIt even became an example in a textbook (see below).

The judge, who worked in the 1st Appeals Panel of the Capital, was the rapporteur of the appeal that confirmed the sentence of judge Helio David Vieira Figueira dos Santos, in 2011, who was still a judge at the time.

The company had tried to convince the judges that the consumer was to blame for allowing the animal access to the device.

“A gecko has every right to roam the external walls of houses in search of mosquitoes and other small insects that make up its diet. Everyone knows this and certainly also the engineers who design these engines, which are known to be installed outside of the residence, an area that legitimately belongs to the geckos”, he declared in the decision.

He added that, “if the defendant did not bother to seal the split’s external motor, she clearly acted with guilt, as it was all that was needed to require the author to keep hunting lizards on the outside walls instead of cooling off inside his House.”

The sentence had such an impact that it became an example in a Portuguese language textbook, distributed to the 5th year of elementary school (see below).

According to the Court of Justice of Santa Catarina (TJSC), the material was published in 2021 by an education platform with more than 900 partner schools in the country.

Alexandre Morais da Rosa balances his routine as a judge at the TJSC with the time he dedicates to social media.

Since he was diagnosed with ASD, at the age of 47, the magistrate shares the condition with his followers. “The fight is to expand the service network, associated with information campaigns and tolerance”, says Rosa.

“If I receive hostile and violent messages on social media, as well as prejudiced and discriminatory comments, including from people who should be informed, imagine the excluded population. Ignorance is the twin sister of intolerance”, he emphasizes.

Substitute judge and member of the 5th Chamber of Public Law, the magistrate received the level 1 TEA report late, after his partner, during the pandemic, started to notice traces, together with a doctor. The diagnosis occurred in June 2021, after 14 consultations and a series of tests with psychiatrists and psychologists.

Rosa was already a judge when he received the news. With the report, she can better understand her own functioning, limitations and possibilities. Naming the peculiarities of adolescence also made life easier, as since then they have had specialized support.