The Sollecito Family Criminal Trial And Civil Trial For Leaking Evidence Will Both Start On 29 April

Comments

Not only do Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito appear to have been afflicted by the revolving-court-door syndrome but it also looks like the Knox & Mellas and Sollecito families have this sickness as well.

Certainly, these related developments regarding the court cases on April 29th and the scheduled July 4th slander hearing for Amanda’s parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, will not go unheeded by the Italian jurors overseeing justice for Meredith Kercher and her family.

I cannot feel the same about the Sollecito family as I do about Curt Knox, Edda & Chris Mellas. And once again I point to Amanda as the initiator of the crime.

It is she who has long entertained fantasies of rape (one report claims that she published a second rape story after imprisonment.) She alone could admit Rudy & Raffaele into the apartment (key.) Always hitherto the star of her own show (behavior) she has these two in tow. And they are all under the bad influence of God knows what drugs.

That Dr. Sollecito, evidently a powerful personality, or his daughter Vanessa should have been drawn into such defense as they could contrive—alas, but it’s true: family loyalty (in anybody) can be warping. And this is such a serious case.

I could have no objection to the shortening of Raffaele’s sentence (in view of what Guede received—damn mere technicalities (fast track), that’s not the point.) Already Vanessa has suffered the loss of her position in law enforcement.

Amanda’s sentence could be reduced only by an act of extraordinary mercy on the part of the court. Trouble there is that she has shown no trace of cooperation, of insight, of honesty & has continued to reveal (if more subtly) that she perversely “enjoys the show.” In a word, she seems incapable of displaying any quality that could influence the court. The Knox clan are most unhelpful.

@Ernest - does anyone know why Vanessa was relieved of her duties?

Knox’s comment that the lifestyle movie is an attack on her person would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. The girl has no tact whatsoever - the reason she is in jail is due to an attack of the worst kind on Meredith, and don’t get me started on the personal attack on Lumumba for which she received a paltry one year sentence ... she ruined that man..

Allison, someone else must help us here.  My recollection is that her dismissal was somehow (definitely) connected to the case.

From an interview, once:

*Raffaele’s sister discloses: “I have lost my job as carabiniere because of my surname.”

“I do not make statements about the characters in the sequence of the process, and also as an ex-officer of the Carabinieri, I remain in my heart a policewoman, and I stick to the facts,” says Vanessa Sollecito, Raffaele Sollecito’s sister, during a pause in the long and detailed indictment of Giuliano Mignini, to our questions on her reaction to the words of the magistrate.

Messagero: Why EX carabinieri, Lieutenant Vanessa Sollecito?

“The surname was inconvenient, I was told by the Force, and I was forcibly discharged.” She says bitterly.

Messagero: Only for having the same name as in one person on trial accused? Was it not enough to have a suspension pending developments or eventually a conviction as happened in cases apparently more severe with direct involvement by members of the Force?

“One of the complexities against me came from an intercepted wiretap in which I was talking to a politician who according to my superiors I was trying to entrust the fate of my brother Raffaele with in the proceedings. But it will be enough to listen carefully to the recordings, I only spoke about a member of his family that I had as a student, never, never about Raffaele.”

Latest quotes from Deanne Knox. “He got his dates mixed up. He said he was on drugs at the time. He was recalling that people were in costumes on Halloween, which was actually the day after.”

Sorry, say that again?

And “She’s confident in her innocence.”

Wasn’t it Amanda who said (or words to the effect) “I am confident with my conscience.”

One’s conscience cannot belong to anybody else. Being confident with one’s conscience implies there could be a lack of confidence. Does Amanda have a split personality?

Talking in riddles seems to run in this family. They are blithely unaware (as, it seems, are others) of the absurdity of many of their remarks.

Not so much Alice as the other characters in Wonderland. I almost feel sorry for them.

I hate to state the obvious but of course both families must have worked in concert to achieve some sort of perversion of justice. Now their entire house of cards will collapse.

Discounting Mr Lumumba there is only one victim here and that is Meredith Kercher. However the real instigator is Amanda Knox. The real leader is Amanda Knox. The others are just followers. Knox has used sex in order to gain power over her many conquests because that’s how she sees them. To this she has admitted. This, of course, includes Sollicito who lives in a fantasy world populated by drugs and knifes.

Knox has boasted how affectionate he was during their very brief time together This kind of behavior Knox translates into her power over men. look at her demeanor in the court room early in the trial when she tried to flirt with the male lawyers, the men on the jury and even the judge. This observation is a matter of record. If you examine Knox early family life the reason for this becomes obvious because she had to compete with her mother for effection from her step father.

All this is not conjecture.  Her school friends were boys not girls hence the desire to compete against boys playing soccer. She is not, in any way shape or form, a confused little girl or a martyr. This is the persona she presents to the world. Sad that so many gullible people swallow her sob story but then the truth will eventually become known. Hopefully when all of this over, the full weight of public opinion by her supporters will swing in the opposite direction and people will understand what this woman really is.

@thanks James. There must be something in the wire tapping thing.. When RS called her [having allegedly ‘found’ Meredith’s body] she told him to call the Police, which would be the correct procedure. I don’t know how rare or popular the name Sollecito is in Italy - but I would have thought that if she was dismissed on the basis of her surname she would have a strong case for wrongful dismissal.

Hello again.  Just seen this article and wonder whether anyone from this site will be able to attend - perhaps take copies of the Massei report along, too?

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2011/03/28/news/update-amanda-knox-forum-seattle-u-attract-big-na

I welcome Helder Licht’s contribution because it bolsters me in my views.

Question of victimhood & Amanda: Grahame Rhodes is right on that, surely, with respect to this case. But Amanda’s early life is matter of speculation.

It’s Curt Knox who counts here (hardly Chris) & I wonder to what extent Amanda “presents” her deed to her father & mother?  Some think she has forgotten the murder whereas I think she owns her deed.

So was Amanda herself (conceivably) violated as a girl?

I have known two cases at first hand of young women who had been violated sexually.  The first was a good-looking young woman who sought me out when I served on the chaplain’s staff at Cornell University.

She had discovered, through her boyfriend, that seemingly in consequence of the early violation she was entirely frigid.  This emerged in a session that had grown extraordinarily tense & when she blurted it out, I was astonished.

Of all things, that woman had been violated by her own father who pretended to be ‘initiating’ her into sex. Also surprising: he was on the board of elders of a Presbyterian church (elsewhere, not nearby.)

A second instance involved a young woman—one of these long-legged, deep-breasted creatures, if I dare say so—who had been abused by a neighbor. She had married young, was a working wife & had discovered that she was frigid.

At that time (I date myself) much talk of the joy of sex & when she happened to remark that she felt like “being a whore,” I told her that while sex was indeed joyous (for those not afflicted) it was not at all the way to happiness.

A couple of years later I ran into her on a return visit. She & her husband, a newly-endowed PhD, had moved away. She had become a mother to a toddler &, though we met only on the sidewalk, she reminded me of my contrasting the joy of sex to the way of happiness. Clearly, she’d made her choice & was satisfied with it.

It is Amanda’s flagrant promiscuity which makes me ask: What IS she looking for? Is it possible…

But never mind. I’ve had my say in these posts. Thanks to Peter for this (great site, Peter Quennell) but high time I withdraw.

My book on the Gospels, Rod of Jesse, is posted on the internet. Just Google it. Point is to examine both sides of the question, including the negative.

Great post Ernest, thanks!

On the topic of the families - this reminder of the Sollecito family ‘leaking evidence’ has made me reconsider my prior, somewhat sympathetic sentiments towards them. I see no reason why they should have leaked a video of Meredith’s body, laying there lifeless and unable to cover herself. A girl with such dignity by all accounts. Its sad that those moments were publicized. IMHO this brings the family to the level of the Knox clan or worse! Though I resent the Knoxes for spreading lies (slander case) - I believe a greater punishment should be allocated to this family, who so disrespected Meredith’s memory and no doubt stabbed yet another dagger into the hearts of the Kerecher family. Hope I dont sound too harsh!

3/29/11

@ Ernest Werner, I hope you don’t withdraw from these discussions any time soon. Your post today was another good one. I, too, have wondered about Amanda’s childhood experiences, if she suffered molestation or sexual abuse that led to a latter day outburst against another woman. However distasteful this subject is, sadly it is far more common than we wish to think.

I agree with Werner about the families, too. The Sollecito family were destroyed by Raffaele’s involvement in this crime. It is discouraging to see a policewoman forcibly discharged from her job (I speak of Vanessa Sollecito) because of a foolish pothead brother who wished her no good in her capacity as a defender of law, if this is the fruit of his life. His addiction to drugs showed ample disrespect and I doubt it was a secret from his sister. He has been skating toward the edge for a long time, and probably jealous of Vanessa’s ability to function in such a responsible job. He soon nixed that.

The Doctor and Vanessa should have trusted the system and allowed son and brother to go through it, achieving justice by the normal route. They got spooked but would have done better to “light one candle than to curse the darkness”. They could have done their own PR campaign to highlight Raffaele’s good side, his kindness to his aging grandparents, his quiet lifestyle, his studious proclivities, his gentle nature. They could have written newspaper and magazine articles, talked with him and told human interest stories about his childhood, published his artwork. Anything positive however small is better than something negative. They could have showcased Raf’s and their family’s good things rather than sell offensive photos to be broadcast.

Maybe as a medical doctor, Frank Sollecito is a bit coarsened from looking at too many bodies and is inured to shock. He obviously misread the public taste and must regret his lapse.

Again, Werner mentions the way family loyalties warp one’s judgment. So true, it warps them at the moment when judgment is most needed in a crisis. Old saying, “nobody’s in a hurry but the devil”. Their false rush to “save Raffaele, save brother” has done no good. It was right to hire good lawyers for Raffaele which of course they did. That alone cost a fortune. All this financial not to mention emotional waste, because Raf wanted to impress an American temptress. He should suffer, not his family. When they get a bellyful of it, they will cease to, although I know they will always love him, as they should. It’s like Raffaele is saying to dad, Choose Vanessa who represents the law, or choose me the lawbreaker. In a way, Raf seems to have pulled both father and sister into the same category as himself, solidifying family bonds. Is this the longrange goal, unwittingly? a family afraid to detach and be on their own, possibly. The same crucible is melting Amanda and her parents into one fused history.

It really galls me to see a policewoman destroyed by a lawbreaker relative, happens all the time. Police deserve great respect for their courage and willingness to defend the helpless, to stay on the side of good. Police have to battle wrongdoers inside the family and outside, it’s tough. When a family member goes bad, often it’s a test born of envy, a rejection of the relative who has earned a badge: choose me or the law. Anybody who forces such a choice on you is not worthy of your sacrifice. Two wrongs don’t make a right. If you go bad, your brother won’t go good.

What are the odds (whether or not the postal police had arrived) that just for a mere break in (before Meredith’s body had been discovered) in which nothing had been stolen, Amanda would ring her mother at 4 am in the morning and Raffaelle would ring, not the carabinieri, but specifically his sister?

Vanessa, it is my understanding, was not with the carabinieri but a Lieutenamt in the Italian military police.

What was so pressing that the respective families had to be simultaneously alerted at that stage?

Odd as well as being pretty much against the odds I would have thought.

x Giselle
Worse, no doubt.

x Hopeful

Sei veramente troppo buona/o.

VS wasn’t in the Police but in the Carabinieri.  When you are in this Corp, not only you but also your family MUST BE PERFECT, is an accepted tradition in Italy. No exceptions. Please, read this official paper. In page 14 you find the final list about the competition for second lieutenant in Carabinieri held in September 2007.

The first, score 79.36
The second-last, score 62.51
The last (VS) score 9.59

http://www.difesa.it/NR/rdonlyres/DC6E3596-C6D7-4AEF-A4E9-73D9F7CE6929/13792/N25Pdf5.pdf

…. any comment here ?

Now.
Have you red the book written by Fiorenza Sarzanini “Amanda e gli altri“ ? No ? Among other things, how RS defined his father’s profession during his Erasmus ? “taglia cazzi” as far as I red ….

Well said Mr.Rhodes Thank you.

@ ncountryside,

I can’t read italian. Just enough to decipher that this is a Ministry of Defence document. But I take your word for it.

No I haven;t read that book and it would be interesting to know, in english please, how RS defined his father’s profession.

As an occasional exhibitor of my own artwork I am familiar with that pit of the stomach feeling (almost approaching panic) before the gallery doors open. Is my handiwork going to be passed over, rubbished or what?

I wonder how AK and RS felt about their own handiwork when the postal police arrived?

x James Raper,
imho is not correct to post those – translated in English - vulgarities in this site. Let me see in pm ...

Hi James.

You wrote:  ““What are the odds (whether or not the postal police had arrived) that just for a mere break in (before Meredith’s body had been discovered) in which nothing had been stolen, Amanda would ring her mother at 4 am in the morning and Raffaelle would ring, not the carabinieri, but specifically his sister?”“

Well, exactly.

It’s a totally implausible story on every level. Knox claims she took a shower, noticed “some blood” but assumed Meredith (the only other person who used that bathroom) had “menstrual issues”. So in her story the blood wasn’t important or an issue, except it was because she then mentioned it.

She noticed Meredith’s door was locked but then said that was normal (which her Italian flatmate loudly said was not true). If it was normal, why even notice it or mention it?

She noticed an apparent breakin in a room not belonging to her (why did she even look there) and her boyfriend, who didn’t live in the house is confident that nothing was taken. How would he even know?

Then she calls her mother at a stupid time in the morning, for what? Even her mother realized something was wrong.

Knox thought she was being very clever and seamlessly manipulative, but she was giving herself away at every turn. She thinks she’s the main character in her own movie, and everyone else is just a secondary supporting character. She can’t understand it when people have their own ideas, when they don’t believe her, when they don’t play along.

@ ncountryside,

You’re right. She must have been carabinieri. Helder Licht quotes her as talking of herself as ex-carabinieri. But can one be carabinieri but on contract to the Ministry of Defence? It’s just that the authors of Darkness Descending talk of her as a military policewoman and also mention that she was the first italian female to become a military pilot. No question but that she was a high flyer! Of course she may have gone from the military to civvy street.

@ Lilly,

In addition AK’s blood in the bathroom wasn’t menstrual or from ear piercing otherwise she would surely have mentioned it. As to the latter I am sure that AK herself mentions somewhere that RS, whilst checking her over “tenderly” (I think during a shower together on the night of the 1st Nov), notices that her ears were clean and dry. Can’t remember where I saw that but it’s a peculiar detail for her to come up with. It all sounds a bit like baboons delousing each other.

@James - she said that he washed her ears in the shower at his place [very romantic]. With regard to checking that the ears were dry - that was a check she made herself when she was in the bathroom [in Villa della Pergola] having noticed the blood on the cotton bud box. So they were separate events…

As ncountryside observed, Vanessa was a lieutenant in the Carabinieri. Here is Jools’s post of November 2009 on her firing from the Carabinieri.

In addition to the family trial, the Carabinieri still have some action intended against her, and she could end up facing further punishment.

On the politicians angle, here is an excerpt from an article in the Guardian in June 2008:

****************

The investigation into the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy took a dramatic twist yesterday when the family of one of the suspects was accused of attempting to interfere with the inquiry.

Police tapping the phones of the father of Italian student Raffaele Sollecito overheard discussions that appeared to suggest plans being made to get senior politicians to use their influence and get detectives whom the Sollecitos considered hostile taken off the case. The phone tap information is in files handed over to lawyers as magistrate Giuliano Mignini officially completed the investigation into the strangling and stabbing of Kercher, from Surrey, who was found on 2 November semi-naked in a pool of blood in her bedroom in Perugia.

‘We’ve got to flay the Perugia flying squad,’ a family member was overheard saying, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. ‘If we can get rid of the head of homicide and that other one, we’ll be OK.’

Relatives of Sollecito, including his sister, a policewoman, were also overheard discussing politicians who could help their case. Giulia Buongiorno, a lawyer and MP in Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling coalition, has now been retained to represent Sollecito. ‘She can help out on this case at a political level,’ Sollecito’s father was overheard saying.

Sollecito’s father, Franco, a well-to-do doctor from Bari in southern Italy, has campaigned to prove his son’s innocence, even to the point of allegedly leaking to a TV station a video obtained from the crime scene showing Kercher’s corpse, as well as highlighting perceived errors by the investigators, including the delayed recovery of parts of Kercher’s bra strap which were found to carry Sollecito’s DNA. Police are holding in custody Sollecito, 24; his former girlfriend and Kercher’s flatmate, American student Amanda Knox, 20; and a third suspect, Rudy Guede, 21. All three deny involvement in the vicious killing.

3/30/11

ncountryside—

thanks for correcting me that Vanessa was a Carabinieri and that Carabinieri must be very upstanding citizens, as you say PERFECT, their families included. What a wonderful achievement, and now to have it destroyed by one’s closest relative. “We only hurt the ones we love”. Also from James Raper I learn today that Vanessa became a military pilot! that is amazing. She has many talents and strengths.

ncountryside, yes,

I did see the awful term Raffaele used to describe his father’s occupation. I read it in English on PMF and it shocked me, the disrespect. As a urologist, Dr. Sollecito must see a lot of difficult cases. They often work with geriatric populations who are having difficulties with bladder control, prostate problems, and so many ailments. It would take a saint to deal with such matters.

My aunt told me that doctors are rather crude people, which I couldn’t fathom, having always respected their intelligence and dedication to hard service. But she is right in one respect, they do see so much of the human body up close and personal that they must think nothing of people’s private parts and physical bodies. An occupational hazard.

I think Raf must have gotten his mother’s delicacy and probably is his father’s exact opposite. Raf said he could not stand the sight of blood and would faint if he saw any. He must be very conflicted in evaluating his father’s occupation of working with the genital area of all his patients. It does seem a very difficult and rarified calling, but we are all grateful if we need such a physician.

I believe Amanda herself briefly worked in the office of an OB-GYN, obstetrician gynecologist.

x James Raper,
in Italy, Navy, Army, Air Force and Carabinieri depend on the Department of Defence, in other words they are all soldiers (they are also recognizable by means of their insignia: with a silver/golden star). Police depends on the Department of Interior, in other words they are not soldiers. So, literally, VS was not a policewoman; she was previously officer in the Air Force, but since in Carabinieri, something doesn’t work in her records, at least those made open to the public (as I tried to show).

Hi ncountryside

Reference your first comment above linking to the 2007 report about Vanessa getting only a 9.59 score where all the others were in the 60s and above.  I wonder if you could explain that? There is an explanation on page 13 but I find it a little baffling.

I sure wish the Sarzanini book on the defendants’ psychology had come out in English. An excerpt from Amanda’s diary is still online despite the lawsuit trying to suppress the book. There is a link to a google translation of it in this post.

From that we learned that one of Chris Mellas’s pet names for Amanda was “obtuse retard”. Google translates it as “stupid mentally retarded”. It indicated that AK sure did not like being around Chris Mellas, which we also know from other sources. .

ncountryside.

I once had a friend who flew as navigator in Tornados. He qualified as a lawyer and left the RAF to work, as it happened, where I was working in Manchester. He got fed up that with that and was re-employed by the MOD, with the same rank in the RAF as when he left, prosecuting at court martials etc. Then he came back out again but I have lost touch with him.

The point being that in his circumstances it was not too difficult to move from the military to civvy street and back again. The situation of VS seems to be different in that technically she can be described as a military policewoman even if that wasn’t her role as we over here understand it.

Garafano was of course a Colonel as well!

You need not translate into english the opinion that RS had of his father’s profession. I have got the picture (if that is the right word) from Hopeful.

May be VS wasn’t such a talented cop after all. Just as it is not unknown for some talented sportsmen to get a free pass to university and degrees of sorts, VS may have got favourable treatment as a national celebrity. If she was little more than a mascot in the eyes of the carabinieri that might explain her involvement in subsequent blunders and why it was only too easy for them to sack her. Only guessing.

Just wondering if anyone could please provide me a reference to a transcript of what Knox said in court. I am specifically after her testimony that she was assaulted by police and threatened. This would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Giselle,

AK first mentions being hit by the police in her voluntary statement of the 6th November. This is given Statement Analysis treatment by Peter Hyatt ( see under Statement Analyses)

However there is also a video of her oral statement in court under Vital Must-Read Posts.

Thanks James!

Hi Giselle,

You can read the transcripts of what Amanda Knox said in court on PMF. Here’s the link:

http://perugiamurderfile.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=165

Knox’s testimony about being hit by the police is contained in Audio 3.

Where next:

Or to next entry Evolution Of The Wikipedia Article On The Murder Of Meredith Kercher

Or to previous entry Sixth Appeal Hearing: Andrea Vogt On The Testimony Of The Witness In The Square