The manager of the pain therapy department, Tomaso Cocco, is considered by investigators to be one of the pillars of the system dismantled by the Cagliari district anti-mafia directorate, with 31 arrests made yesterday.
In the reconstruction of the investigations reported in the order of the investigating judge of the Court, Michele Contini, his name appears several times, associated with various charges which led to his being placed in precautionary custody. However, the provision also reports a series of behaviors that emerged from the wiretaps "the illegality of which needs to be verified documentaryly with subsequent investigations" which would describe the "real nature of the criminal personality" of the doctor.
April 2020, Covid was locking Italians at home and throwing hospitals into chaos. Patients who turn to pain therapy are "desperate" and often had visits scheduled as "urgent". But according to the investigators they were "artfully diverted towards more profitable intramural services". And faster. They involved more work but also a much higher profit for Cocco who "in that period had to face greater expenses" with which he found himself having to deal. "Four months, then I'll cut back," he said on the phone, "because I don't care anymore, but I have things to pay."
No spirit of service, writes the investigating judge, "just a purely economic need". In June the doctor reported with satisfaction to the mother that he had carried out a good number of intramoenia visits, which had earned him 1,050 euros. And for the next day he had 17. He also explains that some nurses agreed to be part of the game, diverting patients to paid visits. In exchange, we read, they could keep all the gifts that were brought to the hospital.
The "unscrupulousness of the suspect", writes the investigating judge, also emerges on the occasion of his infection with Covid: he had a high viral load but decided to violate the obligation of isolation, which was strict at the time, to go to supermarkets and shopping centres. He had been investigated for this matter and disciplinary proceedings had also been opened. Entrusted, however, "not by chance" to a friend of hers.
According to what emerges from the documents, Cocco seemed to treat the Binaghi as a place that he could manage a bit like a master, including snacks and secret meetings.
And he made his medical skills available to the Orgolese branch of the gang. He had also drawn up an expert report which was supposed to lead to the release of a friend of his associates. But the execution judge had branded her as not very credible. In the meantime, however, he had also offered to provide his services to declare the state of health of the fugitive Graziano Mesina incompatible with detention. According to what emerges, Cocco knew who was covering for the former Scarlet Pimpernel: his friends, who were later arrested together with him. To whom during the pandemic it also provided masks against the virus, while none could be found on the market. They were hospital facilities, bought with public money.