RWVBWL
Master Poster
Greetings Machiavelli,You've been hammerin' out some hard hittin' posts recently, so I decided to dig into some past history at Perugia Shock to reply to you.
Have you ever met and talked with Marco Quintavalle?I know from reading around that you can't stand Frank Sfarzo, but Sfarzo went and personally talked with Quintavalle and watched him testify in court.
Here is some interesting info that Mr. Sfarzo thought worthwhile to share:
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Superwitness and Forgetful
Another testimony perfect for the puzzle is the store witness, Marco, new candidate to the title of Superwitness, who is described as reliable because endowed with a prodigious memory. This guy says he knew Amanda, Rudy and Raffaele very well because they were regular at his store. He remembers that one time Rudy and Raffaele looked like coming and going together in the store. Only Rudy bought something, though.
Then Marco has a very clear memory of Amanda coming to shop as soon as he opened the store on November 2. He remembers exactly the way she was dressed, the color of the scarf, the price of the Ace bleach of one year ago. Just he doesn't remember what she bought and if she bought something. He admits that the police came right after the crime and sized the whole record of the sales.
Interesting that he perfectly remembers things which can't be verified, such as how Amanda was dressed, but doesn't remember what is not in his control and can be easily verified by the police, such us the purchase she made. For some reasons this guy --with such a great memory, who knew Amanda so well and who was so hit by her presence in the store-- didn't say anything on November 6 (or in the days or weeks or months after) when he saw that she was arrested. He didn't say anything not even to the very asking journalist, who lives next door, who is 'a friend', who he knew 'for ages', who shops there 'every day'. This journalists, as we learned, is the one who lives right there and he's asking and re-asking everyone, buzzing to every door, insisting in all possible ways. Marco didn't say anything to his friend, client and neighbor for one year. But suddenly, just when the investigations were reopened, he felt like telling everything to him (not to the police, of course).
Then I had a particular experience with this guy when last week --as soon as he was known-- I went to interview him but he denied to be the witness. He didn't just deny, he made a great scene explaining that for him it would be impossible to say who came to the shop even one day later, even 12 hours later, even if the person was someone he knew, even if the person became then famous, even if.. even if... Really a great scene. Very convincing. To convince him that he was lying I had to come back next day showing the deposition he had signed...
So we have another information on this guy: besides having a weak memory (he can't remember what she bought) he's a great actor as well. And the greatest you are as an actor the less you are reliable in front of the judge. Especially if you were presented as a guy with a prodigious memory and you turn to be a bit forgetful, instead.
Mr. Sfarzo also writes this:
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Insulting the justice
CLOWN SHOW AT THE COURTHOUSE
Pulling the judge's legs
But the insult to the justice came from the clown show of Marco Quintavalle, the store keeper.
In the Sala degli Affreschi, were the justice is ruled or taught since 6 centuries this guy managed to pull the legs of a judge and a full jury. He spent one hour describing how Amanda went to his store in the morning of November 2, perfectly remembering the pitiful lesson he had learned of the color of her scarf, clothes and eyes... But later, about the end of his testimony, under the questions of Carlo Dalla Vedova, he admitted that: I'm not absolutely sure that can be her.
The judge Massei couldn't accept that sudden nullification of his whole testimony and with the very last round of questions managed to have him to affirm again the opposite: but inside me I'm sure. The event speaks a lot about what idea the judge has of the case. It looks like he totally bought the prosecutors position since sometimes you may have the feeling that he seems to resist to elements running against it, as he did in this case.
But what is unbelievable is to see a courthouse being made fun by a sandwich seller and his totally contradictory testimony. We had seen Judge Paolo Micheli's criteria of judgment of testimonies. He dismissed witnesses for much less. And probably he, Paolo the impartial, would have already kicked back this joker to slice prosciutto.
His testimony was totally inconsistent. He maintains to have recalled on November 6, the day Amanda was arrested, that she was the girl who came to his store on November 2. He had to admit that the police went to question him on about November 15 and he didn't tell them anything. He had to admit that the police told him to call anytime he had anything to say but he never called them. But one year later he was convinced (he used this word) by his friend from the notorious Giornale dell'Umbria to finally remember that on that faraway day of November 2 2007 Amanda Knox went to his store... Not even a kid would believe this tomfoolery.
Carlo questioned him also about his relation with the media and his exclusive interview to Porta a Porta and Marco repeated what he had told me, to have been disappointed by that interview. But he had to admit that for complaining he didn't call Porta a Porta, he called the director of Giornale dell'Umbria, revealing who was the organizer of that operation (as I had figured out at that time). By consequence Carlo's question was compulsory: he asked Marco if he had been payed. And he denied. It remains to explain what made him accept the risk to be punished (as by article 379 bis of penal code) for having violated the secretiveness of the deposition...
Anyway, his testimony is maybe very important for his mentors, who have to sell newspapers and books for ingenuous readers. Not so for the trial because, after all, he just said he saw Amanda entering a store and he, the self-proclaimed genius of memory, doesn't remember what she bought. Here there's a difference to what he stated to me --that when Amanda showed up he was at the cash-register-- and what he said today. It seems that he studied better how to recite his ludicrous part because today he stated that he wasn't at the cash-register and that's why he doesn't know what she bought.
Anyways, I don't really want to waste my time with this abhorrent character, I just have to remind that he said under oath I'm not absolutely sure that can be her and I hope for the sake of the justice that this sentence --which in fact nullifies all of his delirium-- has been transcript and will remain in the trial act. If not, there's still the TV record.
Mr.Sfarzo also makes mention of the local newspaper that uncovers these Super Witnesses:
Monday, November 17, 2008
AMANDA: 'NO WAY THEY COULD HAVE SEEN ME'
The Seattle 'actress' not worried at all for the late witness festival going on in Perugia
When super witnesses started to came out with their more or less extravagant testimonies this website maintained that only two strange ones are not enough for a case like this, it deserved many more of them.
And indeed any sort of people would try to be involved in the big media party of the case.
Lots of anonymous letters arrived to lawyers, PM and even to the defendants in jail. It couldn't be missing a lady in contact with the other world. Plenty of amateur 'dietrologist' (people who see conspiracies everywhere) fulfill the web. And a local newspaper --of which the reputation is very known in town-- keeps on finding witnesses, even after one year from the facts.
We may say there's a new job for those who are in the needing: finding witnesses for the Meredith Kercher case. It looks like they discovered a game that works: finding a witness, bringing him to the PM and then coming out with a full front page (or with an instant book for vacations, a TV appearance, etc.). It worked out well the first time, so they keep on doing that. They never find a proof, a document, a real scoop. They find witnesses and only witnesses. It's their specialty.
After the preliminary hearing ended up the investigations had just restarted and here we are again. The same little newspaper, since they are much better than the police, went around the crime area (full of criminals and drug addicted people) certain that someone had seen something one year before and didn't say anything to the police. And so, one saw an old Peugeot parked in the garden, another one heard a quarrel between a boy and a girl, then the scream and then people fleeing (as it had been so brilliantly described by Nara on TV), another one saw Amanda at 7:45 am of November 2 going shopping in the soap sector of a little store in Corso Garibaldi (near the basketball court) and then heading to via della Pergola.
Who can these new witnesses be? Something tells me that even the new ones are other gentlemen of the basketball court, the friends of Toto. Or maybe they'll be serious professionals. The trial will start soon and we'll come to know. Anyways, if they bring to the PM witnesses that confirm his theory he can only welcome them.
This last one, the one of the store, was heard last Saturday by the PM and would be important because, as we know, Amanda always stated to have slept, at Raffaele's place, until 10 'o clock.
The witness justifies his prodigious memory with the fact that it was strange to see a student going shopping so early in the morning and in a virtual holiday.
The fact that this witness comes after one year should say everything about his reliability. But personally I have a criterion, among others, to tell if a witness is reliable or not. If he says something unexpected there are good chances that he's reliable.
I've always been skeptical about Toto and the Albanian, for instance, because they said exactly what was daily reported in the news (and the news reported the theory of the prosecutor...). Toto, then, wouldn't remember anything the day after the crime --when carabinieri and police went to question him and his friends-- but for some reasons he remembered everything when the magic journalists of the local newspaper went to look for him in january.
Nara, instead, told us something totally unknown before. She heard this horrible scream and she was reliving the fear of that moment while recalling it. Then she described in detail the different noise of the steps on the gravel and those on the stairs, and nobody could imagine that steps could be heard at such a distance.
The store witness seems to me belonging to the first kind. He saw Amanda going to buy something in the soap shelf (of course) an then going to the crime house (of course). He had certainly heard that Amanda is accused of having been doing the clean up in the house with bleach. So he saw something coherent with that. He says as well to have seen Amanda at 7:45. This detail looks like having been studied because 7:45 is exactly the time the store opens to the public.
The store is made like this: you enter through a one-way automatic door and you find a first room with only fresh food and the owner who tells you good morning and assists you if you need something there. Then there is another room with the other items. At one end of this second room there's the soap shelf, at the other end there's the cashier's check and the exit (another automatic door).
The owner is a smart guy in his 40s with an excellent memory. The young woman at the check looks like being very 'awake' as well. They both agree that is impossible to remember who entered the store in a morning of one year ago. Even if students usually shop in the evening. Even if the person became then famous. Even if they knew her before. The guy says: 'I would have problems in remembering it the day after'.
Machiavelli,
I have a hard time believing the testimony of Marco Quintavalle.
Especially after re-reading the postings above from Mr. Sfarzo.
Do you wish to reply in rebuttal?
RW
ETA: Link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20101111130443/http://perugia-shock.blogspot.com/
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