This assumption conflicts with the fact that Vecchiotti actually did ask for specific files in her mails (as it is evident even from one e-mail that Charlie Wilkes has). And also conflicts with the facts that is documented that Stefanoni indicated specific files (both in court and in her e-mail), as items that could be included in the submissions, or not.
Well, from what I posted already we can divine that Vecchiotti required an electropherogram that included the peak
area data in addition to the peak height data like on the one she originally sent. However this omission by Stefanoni and Vecchiotti having to specifically ask for one with the peak area data included doesn't imply that Vecchiotti should have had to
specifically request every little thing regarding the data for the work she was evaluating, especially something as necessary to the evaluation of the work as the negative controls.
Your assumption also conflicts with other important things that you should take in account, as for Vecchiotti's tasks. Vecchiotti in fact she is paid to research and verify the existence of materials and records. If something is missing from the folder she is provided, she is anyway responsible to point it out and verify its existence. She is not supposed to "assume" things. In other words, the fact that she may think so does not exonerate her from her duty to verify, as she has to do with any hypotheses she has, her thoughts notwithstanding.
She was paid (along with Conti) to test the knife and evaluate the work of Stafanoni, not chase down all the records necessary to do so.
Something else that Vecchiotti also should do, a point which further strengenths the previous one, is take note that Stefanoni declared that the laboratory always performed controls, a declaration which was contained in the file that Vcchiotti used as a legal pape to make other claims.
Stefanoni claimed she and the police followed all sorts of procedures even a cursory glance at the crime scene videos proves they did not, such as regularly change their gloves. C&V made a demonstration of that in court as you'll recall. Merely because Stefanoni (or Comodi) asserted something in court is no reason for C&V to assume it was true, especially them having evidence of it not being true.
In addition - and this is another element which is not irreelevant at all - Vecchiotti also should have verified the case file at the prelimiary hearing chanchellery, to see if the negative controls were already there (as the prelimiary judge had recorded). It is evident that she did not do this because when questioned about the negative controls she repeatedely justified herself by refering to things that Stefanoni should send her. She kept saying that she didn't find them because they were not sent. Which implies, she only asked to Stefanoni, she didn't go anywhere else to collect material for her research.
She went straight to the source, the person who had all the files and whose work was being evaluated. Being as they were (in part) commissioned to evaluate Stefanoni's technical report they had the data they needed from the RTIGF, if Stefanoni failed to include something
there and didn't bring it to C&V's attention that it was included at another time despite being asked for all files relevant to the tests Stefanoni performed then the omission is on Stefanoni, not them.
But moreover, it is also obvious that Vecchiotti was not aware about the content of the hearings of Oct. 4 and Oct. 8 2008. She just didn't know that the negative controls were deposited on a hearing. It was obvious from what she said in her questioning that she did not know that the judge ordered further documentation to be deposited, and that such documentation included the negative controls, and that Stefanoni was recorded as she deposited them with the preliminary court. Vecchiotti said that she was hearing this information from the first time from Comodi.
Yes, she ought to have been quite surprised if there was material outstanding that wasn't in the RTIGF and wasn't included by Stefanoni when she was asked for the files relevant to the tests.
You also should not forget the fact that Vecchiotti failed to record any contradiction between: the transcripts where Stefanoni is recorded saying she deposited the controls (oct 8) or the judge's declaration that they would be put in the case file and when Stefanoni stated she always performed them(oct 8), and the fact that she may not have found the negative controls in her researches. Vecchiotti failed to point out such issue in her report, and failed to do so also in her interrogation (until Comodi iformed her that the controls were already in the file).
Perhaps this is because C&V weren't commissioned to take Stefanoni at her word but to evaluate the work she did, and having been exposed to it realized that simply because Stefanoni said something in court didn't mean it was true? A perusal of
this page (
amongst others!) shows where they'd discovered this about Stefanoni and her work.
I especially like:
C&V Quantification of DNA (36B) said:
From this, it can be inferred that what is reported on page 78 of the RTIGF (and confirmed in the GUP questioning, page 178, where it is claimed that quantification was performed using Real Time and that quantification of the Y [chromosome] was not carried out) is not consistent with what was performed in reality.
(emphasis retained)
You also have several other elements against Vecchiotti actually.
For example, in her report she wrote that Stefanoni is nowhere reported to clean her laboratory desk with alcohool, and instead the Oct 4. transcript does report about the cleanings procedures extensively. These omissions are glaring in Vecchiotti's report: it is obvious that she only picks up the "hundreds picograms" quote from the legal paper but she ignores all the rest.
It is also obvious that we have Comodi who says things like "you didn't request them" and "the negative controls are already in the file". You may think that this is not an evidence they are there, but it rises anyway the burden of proof if you want to prove the contrary: you can't just ignore a statement by a magistrate without actually doing anything to disprove it.
To my knowledge there is no proof anywhere that Stefanoni ever submitted the negative controls. We know that Comodi
claimed they were on record, but when she attempted to find them she couldn't and produced a record that wasn't compatible with the other records.
All of this is silly anyway, all Stefanoni had to do if her work was valid was cough up the EDFs like C&V did and the
Carabinieri were recently reported to have done so for their work. There's
no legitimate reason for her to withhold that information, nor play these silly games of what the
independent court experts 'specifically' asked for and did not, or whether those files were on record when the 'magistrate' herself could not find them.