The pre-trial hearing against Valeria Satta (41 years old, from Capoterra) and Manuela Passero (34 years old, from Barnareggio, province of Monza Brianza) opened yesterday morning before the judge of the Court of Cagliari, Simone Nespoli. accused of having defrauded the professional volleyball player Roberto Cazzaniga for years, defrauding him of over half a million euros.
The prosecutor's accusations
In seven and a half years, according to prosecutor Daniele Caria, the athlete would have paid 523,361 euros (in the period between 7 December 2008 and 12 April 2016) to the elusive Maya Mancini, convinced that she was a Brazilian model. According to the prosecution, through deception and the complicity of what he believed to be a friend (Passero), the spiker who in the past also played for the national team would have undertaken a long-distance relationship (without ever seeing her in person) with a woman: he was convinced it was the supermodel and former Victoria's Secret angel Alessandra Ambrosio (who in the bluff called herself Maya for confidentiality reasons), but in reality behind that voice and that keyboard the Capoterrese Valeria Satta would have been hidden. A trick that also cost the two defendants the challenge of competing to replace a person.
The test
Before yesterday morning's hearing, Valeria Satta (defended by lawyers Elisabetta Mura and Romina Usai) formalized the request for probation. This is an alternative legal institution which, if accepted by the judge (following compensation for damages), allows the accused to carry out socially useful work for free, obtaining in exchange the avoidance of conviction and, ultimately, extinction of the crime. For the moment, however, it is only a request, given that yesterday the pre-trial hearing was postponed because judge Simone Nespoli was unable to view the public prosecutor's file, as required by the new Cartabia reform. Manuela Passero is defended by the lawyer Greta Maria Marchesi of the Monza bar.
The alleged scam
The prosecutor Daniele Caria, who received the file opened by the Monza Prosecutor's Office for territorial jurisdiction after a television report on the program Le Iene, disputes that the two alleged accomplices also convinced Cazzaniga that his beloved had serious health problems, thus managing to to top up Valeria Satta's prepaid card (passed off as a friend of the model) several times, so as to help her cover her expenses. An alleged scam that lasted years and which would have exceeded half a million euros. Only when a group of the volleyball player's friends and teammates contacted the Iene, who then discovered how things were, Cazzaniga found the courage to report.
The Cartabia reform
But yesterday morning, for the first time in Cagliari, one of the innovations introduced by the Cartabia reform also came into force: the pre-trial hearing. Judge Nespoli (who will not be the judge to whom the hearing will then be assigned) had to study the prosecutor's file to formulate what in technical jargon is called a "prognostic judgement": in other words he will have to ascertain that there is no evidence that the trial can end with an acquittal. Due to a technical problem he was unable to examine the documents, so he admitted the joining of the parties and then postponed the hearing to January for the choice of rites.