My thinking is that they don't normally need 12 officials to interview a witness. That is why it seems she was a suspect immediately. Did the defense ever question why they needed 12 interrogators for someone only considered a witness? Not allowing legal council should have led to dismissal of all charges IMO.
Rita Ficarra, Anna Domino, Monica Napoleoni and Zugarini went into court and lied through their teeth, telling a fantasy about coming across her doing
CARTWHEELS. This was the beginning of the
CARTWHEELS meme, started earlier in the day by the police chief who mentioned it to the press for the very first time, like they wanted to make sure
everyone knew this diseased creature had done
CARTWHEELS in their establishment!
Then they told her how naughty she was for not telling them she was stoned that night, (guessing they got that from Raffaele due to his condition that night--there might be some truth here) for doing
CARTWHEELS and for being comforted by Raffaele with kisses (!!!) in the waiting area where she spent most her waking hours every day when they weren't questioning her. Then just off-handlike they mention Raffaele wasn't giving her an alibi, and casually helped themselves to her phone, just being considerate and all, idly passing the time. It just so happens the 'sent' message to Patrick comes up and Amanda just breaks down uncontrollably with some idiot line like 'It's him! He
killed her! He's a
meanie!' Something like that, a definite positive declaration which for
some reason they must have forgotten to put in the statements she signed. They never forgot that she
accused an
INNOCENT MAN (!!!) though.
Then they serve her sweeties and tea all night long to comfort her while they makes sure
everything is done by the book, except the part about taping, they were so concerned over her welfare they forgot that part, shouldn't we forgive them this minor oversight while they look after the crazed
CARTWHEELS queen? Hours pass as the translator is summoned, they wouldn't want to miss one word of the giggly girl-talk they engage in as they make sure every comfort is provided this poor deranged creature. Hours more pass, perhaps more
CARTWHEELS are performed, they don't really say. They don't say much of anything that happened over the seven hour period from when Raffaele signed his statement and they
firmly confronted her on her aberrant behavior, especially the
CARTWHEELS which so alarmed and amazed them.
They do make sure
everyone knows they'd never even
heard of Patrick in the context of this case, they were just absolutely
astonished when she broke down and told them in no uncertain terms that he was the
murderer! So amazed they were, as noted before, they just completely forgot to put that part in the statements they drew up for her. They decided to go with 'vaguely' and how scared she was of this entirely
INNOCENT MAN (!!!)she'd so viciously
ACCUSED, and they were 'shocked...shocked!' that his name even came up! Obviously when gymnastics girl stops doing
CARTWHEELS long enough to say someone they had
no reason at all to suspect of the murder and makes a vicious
accusation like that of an INNOCENT MAN (!!!) they first serve her pastries all night, with plenty of tea, and slowly do nothing else but write up a couple statements that they just plum forgot to include the actual part where she was CERTAIN (!!!) about it and convinced them so.
Obviously this explains why they sent seven squad cars out, hauled Patrick out of his home where he was feeding his baby to the tune of delightful racial epitaphs, a few fists on occasion, and spent all day interrogating him without a lawyer or cameras. Then they'd pack him, Raffaele and Amanda (who gives Zugarini a kiss she's so pleased at her humane treatment!) up and parade through town with sirens blazing and lights flashing like they captured a mastermind mafia don, and announce 'cased closed' as this was all the proof they needed! If anything went wrong here it as
her fault for doing so many
CARTWHEELS, and these poor women police officers who just wanted a nice chick chat to comfort her because they were concerned for her welfare as they saw her doing
CARTWHEELS and were just
curious about why Raffaele would say something so silly as she didn't have an alibi anymore. They had to make sure she didn't leave, just in case of course, but they never
imagined their little chick chat would go from talking about
CARTWHEELS to a an
ACCUSATION of an
INNOCENT MAN (!!!) they were just ladies gabbing away!
If you can't guess, the theme for the day was
CARTWHEELS and how just out of the blue she
accused an
INNOCENT MAN (!!!) and they had nothing to do with it, of course. Just three officers and a translator helping prepare her
accusation of an
INNOCENT MAN. (!!!) When they were done Amanda walked up and politely said something to the effect she was sorry to hear them say it, as none of it was true.
Later on during the trial, ~a month later Edgardo Giobbi, the SCO officer from Rome who was running the interrogation from the control room, would come in an say he was 'mathematically certain' he'd ordered them to come in so he could study their behavior, which would be what he said a couple months after the arrest, he gave specific detailed reasons as well. He also said he heard Amanda scream, and that the reasons he was suspicious of her involved hip-wiggling, breaking down in tears unexpectedly after the murder, and her going to eat pizza with Raffaele when naturally she should be laying in bed bawling her eyes out, mere yards away where her new friend had been murdered.
If you go looking for information about what the cops testified to regarding the interrogation you find mostly the press wanted to talk about cartwheels, which is what each and every police officer testified to at some point regarding the interrogation and what it seemed they really wanted to talk about. Oh, they wanted to make sure everyone knew they didn't have anything to do with the arrest of Patrick, it was her doing absolutely and totally, how could they possibly be responsible for arresting a man if a girl has done cartwheels before them? With the other lies they told I can't say I blame them.