Salerno – In the Vassallo murder case, a third hearing will be needed by the Salerno Review Court to determine whether there is serious evidence of Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo's guilt. This is what the Court of Cassation established in its reasoning filed in recent days, noting "critical issues and systematic flaws in the evidentiary framework."
The ermines, to whom Cagnazzo's defense appealed for a ruling on the decision of the Salerno Review Court regarding the precautionary requirements, justify the annulment of the precautionary order against the officer by underlining - at the defense's request - above all the incongruities of the statements of the former informer Romolo Ridosso and the confirmations of the statements of Eugenio D'Atri.
The Court of Cassation has defined some of D'Atri's statements regarding the involvement of Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo as "unusable" or lacking objective evidence.
The Court of Cassation bases the annulment of the order above all on the unreliability of the statements of the main prosecution witness, Romolo Ridosso.
The Scafati boss, the ermines note, 'never made direct accusations against Cagnazzo, nor offered any useful evidentiary data.'
D'Atri, however, allegedly gathered Romolo Ridosso's confidences during a period of detention together. And even this circumstance is not conclusive—according to the Supreme Court—to prove the Carabinieri colonel's full involvement in the crime of September 5, 2010, which took place in Pollica.
The judges also focused on another important detail, regarding the incidents of misdirection of investigations with which the Carabinieri colonel was accused.
There is no evidence that the cover-up was planned before the murder to cover up the perpetrator of the crime, and therefore with Cagnazzo's knowledge that Mayor Angelo Vassallo was about to be killed, or that it was only implemented later and for reasons that have not been clarified.
In recent days, pending the filing of the Supreme Court's reasons, and to allow the new defense attorney for Lazzaro Cioffi, a former Carabinieri sergeant, to review the documents, the preliminary hearing was adjourned until March 27. In addition to Cagnazzo and Cioffi, the defendants include businessman Giuseppe Cipriano, former informer Romolo Ridosso, and Giovanni Cafiero.
The latter is accused of participating, along with Cagnazzo, Cipriano, and Cioffi, in a drug trafficking ring based in Acciaroli. This is believed to be the motive that drove the killer to kill Mayor Angelo Vassallo, who allegedly hindered the traffickers.
The Supreme Court's reasoning regarding the serious evidence of guilt against Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo—recently reinstated by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court—will weigh heavily on the ongoing preliminary hearing. His defense is hoping for a new ruling from the Court of Appeal, which will have to adapt its decision to the Supreme Court's rulings, before the preliminary hearing concludes.
Cagnazzo's figure is central to the accusations brought by the Salerno Prosecutor's Office.
The murder of Mayor Angelo Vassallo is the shame of Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo. Over the past 15 years, he has gone from being an "acclaimed and revered" investigator within the Naples anti-mafia prosecutor's office to the force's "black soul." In July 2010, 26 prosecutors signed a letter opposing Cagnazzo's transfer from Castello di Cisterna to Foggia, defending his work for his key role in the anti-Camorra investigations.
Three months later, the Vassallo murder overturned this image and revealed the seemingly 'illogical' choices made by Cagnazzo, on holiday in Acciaroli, before and after the Vassallo murder.
The personal acquisition of surveillance camera footage to uncover the culprit, the tenacity in identifying a suspect, Bruno Damiani, who later turned out not to be involved in the murder, the parallel investigations that somehow obscured the already confusing investigative framework that emerged after the crime.
That brilliant investigator, so meticulous at the murder scenes, so operational to the point of absurdity, capable of infiltrating the gangs of organized crime to track down murderers and fugitives, appears in the Vassallo investigation as a "sloppy and agitated" policeman who makes errors of judgment, steals important evidence, and leads many protagonists to follow an obvious but "blind" trail.
That carabiniere is misleading and delaying the moment of truth in the murder, further weakening a judicial investigation in which the statements of former informer Romolo Ridosso are the discordant pillars of clay. The Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that the case was "lack of evidence" and referred the case to the Salerno Review Court for a third trial due to the lack of serious evidence of Fabio Cagnazzo's guilt.
The defense's war is on "intent": Is Cagnazzo an accomplice and mislead investigator in the Vassallo murder, and did he plan everything before the crime? Or is he a Carabiniere who made naive mistakes in his search for the killer, trying to protect someone or something that was never discovered?
The proven facts of his conduct remain. A proven motive is missing. The gun is missing. The person who fired nine shots at Mayor Angelo Vassallo is missing.
There remain red herrings and unanswered questions. And while he upholds the constitutional principle of innocence until a final verdict, Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo is part of this intrigue.
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Comments (1)
It's interesting how the Supreme Court analyzed the evidence and witnesses, but there are many doubts about the entire trial. Perhaps it would be better to have more clarity on what really happened before passing judgment. The situation is complex.