Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Mignini And Giuttari Win Final Round In Spurious 2010 Conviction By Rogue Prosecutor And Judge

Posted by Peter Quennell

Poison pill sown in 2006

The entire edifice of the Knox PR campaign was always built on a foundation of sand.

Years ago, the wannabe real-crime-reporter Doug Preston was shaken to the core when Dr Mignini and others figured out with the help of court-authorized wire-taps that he and Mario Spezi were planting evidence and using fake IDs to frame someone they had wrongly concluded was the “real” murderer in the Monster of Florence case.

In uncalled-for retaliation (he got off very lightly and could have faced a prison term) Preston went back to the US and, safe there, wrote a nasty and largely fictional book. He repeatedly claims it was really the cops and specifically Dr Mignini not Preston & Spezi who were dumb and blundering in not sufficiently investigating and charging the “real” murderer.

Fast-forward to 2008

Almost nobody in Italy supports Preston’s and Spezi’s “solution” to the MOF crime which they seemed to hope would bring them big bucks and whole new careers. That solution is widely regarded as a joke and there is voluminous evidence against it.

Nevertheless, Preston’s MOF book is published in the US, demonizing Mignini in great detail.

Knox PR aide David Marriot and his media pet poodles and online thugs, including the wild-eyed Paul Ciolino of CBS and the bizarro Frank Sforza of Perugia, were all over the notion that it was Mignini and not Preston & Spezi who had done something seriously wrong.

The mafia always has an interest in taking Italian justice down a peg, and opportunities were increasingly seen here. The mafia’s various useful idiots in the US (John Douglas, Saul Kassin, Dempsey, Burleigh, Steve Moore, Michele Moore, Heavey, Fischer, Doug Bremner, Hampikian, Halkidis, and some others) who have plagued a correct understanding of the MOF and Perugia cases all helpfully all piled on.

Fast-forward to January 2010

Dr Mignini and the former head of Florence detectives Michele Giuttari were convicted in Florence on spurious grounds. See our posts back then by Commissario Montalbano and TomM.

The purpose of the Florentine investigation against Mignini and Giuttari was obviously a pretext, a ploy aimed at blocking the seemingly very threatening Narducci arm of the MOF investigation. In fact it was a pretext for the rogue Florence prosecutor seizing the Narducci case file back from Dr Mignini in Perugia and burying it out of sight.

Nevertheless, the demonization of Mignini became even more shrill, multiplied globally by the gullible Joel Simon of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists in foolishly protecting the proven liar Frank Sforza who is now facing THREE trials.,

Fast-forward to November 2011

The Florence appeal court reverses the 2010 convictions because the case was brought by the SAME rogue Florence prosecutor who was caught on tape meddling in the Narducci investigation and who was one of those (there were others) trying to slow it down or destroy it.

Fast-forward to January 2013

The Supreme Court scathingly endorses that reversal. The attempt from within the Florentine court to de-legitimize the Narducci arm of the MOF investigation was from now on definitively at a dead end.

The investigations and trials of those who had for mysterious reasons been hampering the Narducci investigation were also put back on track by Cassation. Most threatened is Doug Preston’s mate Mario Spezi. He seems headed for a prison sentence for sure, leaving Preston (a major meddler in Meredith’s case) also legally very exposed..

Fast forward to April 2013

Dr Mignini is promoted, gaining very high marks in a competitive process. From this point on he will handle only appeals, and when Dr Galati retires (expected soon) Dr Mignini is expected to be the #1 prosecutor of the Region of Umbria.

Fast forward to summer 2013

The Turin prosecution office finally obtains the investigation file on Mignini and Giuttari from Florence as the Florence appeal judge and Cassation had instructed.

The investigation file should have been sent in November 2011 for action leading to full closure on the substance, but the Florence prosecutors illegally sat on it, presumably fearful of what could happen to him.

The Turin prosecution office had little interest in re-opening what seemed a dead-end and frivolous case. If this was what Mignini and Giuttari had wanted, the charges could have been dropped, but without any court finding of “not guilty”.

However, Dr Giuttari and Dr Mignini explained that they wanted a court finding of “not guilty” on the merits of the case. They WANTED the Turin court to read the evidence and to make a final ruling.

Fast forward to today

The Turin court did meet. Andrea Vogt posted this report.

For those keeping track of the various “sideshows” in the Amanda Knox case, a Turin court Wednesday definitively acquitted Perugia prosecutor Giuliano Mignini of three charges against him in connection to his investigations into the Monster of Florence case. The court shelved another three charges because the statute of limitations had expired. One abuse of office charge involving the wiretapping of a La Stampa journalist will be heard in court on March 18, but its statute of limitations appears to expire just days before, so it is unclear if the case will go forward. None of the matters relate directly to the Amanda Knox case, but they were often referenced by the prosecutor’s detractors.

And what next

The Italian justice system protects its senior judges and prosecutors from criminal defamations intended to obstruct justice with some powerful measures. They were originally intended to keep the mafia in its place as defamation of police, prosecutors and judges is one of its mainstays.

All of the false claims about Dr Mignini are still out there. Preston’s book is still on sale. So is Burleigh’s, Dempsey’s, Fischer’s, and John Douglas’s. Joel Simon’s seriously wrong claims are still online. Not one has recanted or wound back.

Knox and Sollecito each repeated the baseless claims at length in their books, and even embellished them. Michael Heavey parrots them to the State Department. They are the main crutch of Bruce Fischer, Steve Moore, Michele Moore, Doug Bremner, and so on.

However, the required pushback by Florence prosecutors and others has begun, and with today’s ruling will accelerate. Frank Sforza is already on trial for calunnia and the Italian justice system is quietly zeroing in on many others, all the book publishers included.

On March 14 the magazine Oggi which published many of Amanda Knox’s baseless claims in Italian must appear in court in Bergamo. Knox and Sollecito themselves may find a heap of new legal troubles after the appeal verdict is announced on 30 January.

*****

Numerous posts by Kermit and Yummi still need to be linked to.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/15/14 at 08:07 PM in The officially involved, The prosecutors, The legal followups, Italian related, Hoaxes against Italy, 9 Mignini v Knox hoax, 10 Mignini MOF hoax, Hoaxers from 2007, Preston & Spezi, Heavey, Bremner, Paul Ciolino, Steve Moore, Nina Burleigh, John Douglas

Comments

Numerous posts by Kermit and Yummi still need to be linked to and a long-form version of this post will follow after the 30 January verdict.

As Kermit and Yummi in particular they show, the satanism slant was all made up.

Dr Mignini has become a frequent guest on national TV where he firmly rules out satanic rituals in 99 percent of Italian crimes.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/16/14 at 06:55 AM | #

Hi Peter,

Just a question. Do you have the date for when Preston and Spezi tried to frame the person and also the date for when Preston left Italy? I am just wondering how much time elapsed between those events and Meredith’s murder. Thank you.

Posted by thundering on 01/16/14 at 01:45 PM | #

I am very pleased indeed that Mignini is finally vindicated.

He is a fine, upstanding man and has worked faithfully on this case in spite of the venomous campaign to smear him and sully his good reputation.

The Truth will always be revealed even if it takes some time.

Posted by thundering on 01/16/14 at 01:49 PM | #

Hi Thundering

Doug Preston first arrived in Florence in 2000 and his one brief encounter with Dr Mignini was in 2006.

You may know that his first published version of their exchange in The Atlantic in 2006 sheepishly admitted he had been foolish.

Preston’s ranting MOF book was published in 2008 and the Perugia-case Afterword was added in 2009.

We have had numerous posts on all of this, especially by Kermit, which will be linked to in the long-form version of this story coming up.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/16/14 at 02:44 PM | #

Mignini is awesome. He has been resoundingly acquitted on the merits. This is cause for celebration, justice shines brighter. @Peter Quennell, thank you so much for this marvelous report with historical detail of the craven attacks against Mignini and Giuttari.

Mignini rises above the vicious wolfpack of corruption once again. Let Luca Turco and his clones among FOA be the pariahs. Mignini has sought the truth from day one, with no help from any dirty and compromised factions who envy his rise to fame powered by his virtue. He epitomizes strength and honor.

Mignini and Giuttari have come out of their legal crucible shining and pure.

Mignini played fair with Amanda Knox and Sollecito despite the braying hounds of partiality who sought to bury the involvement of certain criminal students just like a rogue prosecutor tried to bury Dr. Narducci’s possible involvement in horrendous activity. Dr. Narducci may well have been heir to an illustrious family who are not at all to blame if the good doctor went off the rails and ended up murdered by a satanic sect he fooled with. His illustrious family should prove they deserve that epithet by being fearless of the truth. Yet perhaps in their human fragility or pride like certain families from Seattle and Bari they prefer to strangle any honest investigation of their loved one’s criminal tendencies. The justice system shook off their tentacles.

Mignini has long had to battle entrenched powers and prejudices to pull justice from the mire of human decay, a thankless task that is ultimately the life breath of his region. May he rule wisely when he arrives in top post as Umbrian chief prosecutor after Galati.

Mignini is Number One, top drawer, a blue ribbon mensch, a terror to wrongdoers. Let them tremble and feel the sword of justice instead of wielding knives against the helpless.

This post has filled me with encouragement. Also the beautiful depiction of Perugia in the preceding post fills me with longing for that radiant place full of energy, culture, opportunity, all of which two young hoodlums wasted completely. They could have had it all and Meredith could have, too.

Amanda might have married Raffaele in some gorgeous cathedral in Italy, invited Meredith and the Pergola cottage friends to the wedding, then travelled on her honeymoon to 11 cities throughout Italy, taking photos, buying souvenirs, sending happy messages back to the doctor and Mara, happy emails back to her mom and sisters in Seattle, then eventually helping launch Raffaele in some fabulous high tech company on the West Coast of USA making good money. They could have invited his doctor dad to tour the US, and carried their children back to Rome for christening and more sightseeing. They could have been an international family full of promise. Instead it’s as Sicilians say, “a flame for a year, ashes for 30 years.”

It’s good to remember the glories of Perugia and Perugia’s prosecutor Mignini humbly doing his job in his historical city.

Mignini is a friend to justice everywhere. The likeminded champions of justice in Florence extend the right hand of fellowship to him as their glorious equal. We salute them for their mutual high principles, often adhered to at great personal cost. Great news of his acquittal.

Posted by Hopeful on 01/16/14 at 05:38 PM | #

“PR campaign was always built on a foundation of sand”

Please make it quicksand. Eight years is not a very long time for justice.

Posted by chami on 01/16/14 at 06:03 PM | #

Iâ€™ve just sent tweets to journalists from Komo News. Please retweet. Thanks. My name on Twitter is @harryrag

Posted by The Machine on 01/16/14 at 06:38 PM | #

And so castles made of sand, slip into the sea..
Eventually.

Jimi Hendrix. Seattle.

Posted by DF2K on 01/16/14 at 11:55 PM | #

It’s been brilliant on Twitter tonight. Thanks to everyone who has been tweeting and retweeting. You are making a difference. Journalists are sitting up and taking notice.

Posted by The Machine on 01/17/14 at 01:37 AM | #

It’s great to see Charles Mudede commenting on the case again:

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/01/16/a-sober-examination-amanda-knox-situation

Posted by The Machine on 01/17/14 at 01:59 AM | #

Congratulations to Dr. Mignini. A well deserved victory, and complete vindication for him!

Posted by Ergon on 01/17/14 at 05:38 AM | #

And will the troll editors of Wikipedia revise their erroneous entry on Giuliano Mignini?

Unlikely, since it was set up by FOA attorney Anne Bremner’s vicious brother Doug Bremner, who along with Steve Moore recently issued a bizarre series of attacks on the Kercher family on behalf of Amanda Knox.

Posted by Ergon on 01/17/14 at 05:47 AM | #

I stumbled on this website…

http://themurderofmeredithkercher.com/The_Murder_of_Meredith_Kercher:Privacy_policy

Posted by Annie on 01/17/14 at 07:36 AM | #

btw - Doug Bremner has the WORST designed blog. You cannot get around on that thing, it looks like a 1998 myspace page. It is so weak, there is not so much damage with that dinosaur out there.

http://www.dougbremner.com/?_escaped_fragment_=?p=1!

Posted by Annie on 01/17/14 at 08:23 AM | #

Thank you, Peter. I will look out for the new post.

Posted by thundering on 01/17/14 at 09:21 AM | #

Iâ€™ve just sent tweets to journalists and presenters from King 5. Please retweet. Thanks. My name on Twitter is @harryrag If anyone needs to be reminded to act like a journalist rather than a press spokeswoman for Amanda Knox, it’s Linda Byron. She has been advocating for Knox for years.

Posted by The Machine on 01/17/14 at 06:42 PM | #

I’m glad Mignini has been definitively cleared of these charges. Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on this, Pete. Mignini is a good prosecutor. In any case, these charges never had anything whatsoever to do with the Meredith Kercher murder case.

I appreciate your posts, Hopeful. You have a good imagination and I like to read your sentiments.

I also wanted to thank Yummi for his recent comments (on the “prank” thread) regarding motive in this case and prosecutor Crini’s arguments. It was good to hear this from someone who had actually been in the courtroom and is so knowledgeable about the case.

Posted by Earthling on 01/17/14 at 09:41 PM | #

Latest from Andrea Vogt Twitter,

#amandaknox not in court, but giving Skype intvu “la mia verita” (my truth) on Italy’s state-run Rai TV (TG1 tv7) tonite at 23:05.

Posted by True North on 01/18/14 at 12:14 AM | #

Good grief, “my truth.” As if truth is subjective.

Posted by Ceylon on 01/18/14 at 12:21 AM | #

That is utterly disgraceful.

Shame on the TV network for providing a criminal a platform to tell her lies. A criminal who refuses to attend her appeal. Shame on them.

Of course they are after the ratings for this trial for murder which they have turned into a soap opera. They - the media.

Unbelievable.

Posted by thundering on 01/18/14 at 01:18 AM | #

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