When the judge of the Court of Ancona Monday morning he has it acquitted “because the fact does not exist” he breathed a sigh of relief. Yet another. For Luciano Lucchetti was the 34th trialan endless series of complaints collected for having been manager for thirty years and then chief engineer of the Municipality of Ancona.
«Never been convicted. And sincerely I never gave it too much importance. Partly because of my character, partly because I knew I had a clear conscience». Let’s call them unpleasant accessories of a public administrator. It is not easy to extricate oneself from the thicket of laws and bureaucratic constraints. And there is always someone ready to sue.
L’last proceeding it was about the restoration of five cast iron Art Nouveau benches dating back to 1920. Seats of particular historical-cultural interest, one even has the text of General Armando Diaz’s Victory Bulletin engraved on it. According to the accusation, he had moved them without authorization of the Superintendency. Criminal conviction decree, 4,800 euros to be paid in violation of the Cultural Heritage Code. The engineer objected, assisted bylawyer Antonio Mastri, who has followed him for decades, and his colleague Roberto Tiberi. «In the end the same pm asked for acquittal – says Lucchetti -. It was a question of goat’s wool, there was a misunderstanding between the definitive project that had been authorized and the executive project. It was implied that to restore them, the benches had to be taken to the laboratory».
L’lawyer Mastri all his life he has been helping him escape from the traps of justice unscathed: «Often accusations of abuse of officeother times of injuries suffered by users on municipal roads. Cases that demonstrate how the problem has not been resolved in Italy problem of responsibility for administrative acts. This is why public employees are afraid to sign anything.”
The engineer Lucchetti, 72 years old, retired since 2017. «Counting also on the prescription, I should be done with the processes» he observes with irony. «If he slips on the motorbike or trips on a step, now they especially take it out on the mayor. Back then the trend was to sue the manager, which is why I accumulated a significant number of cases.”
He remembers what worried him the most. «The Municipality had acquired a restaurant that had not paid the rent for the concession premises. One night some miscreants enter and steal everything. An opposition councilor complaint to the Court of Auditors for damages of 330 thousand euros because I would not have prevented access. Convicted at first instance, acquitted on appeal because they realize that at the time of the facts I was no longer the competent manager».
The first trial he suffered it not as a coach but as a politician. «I was young councilor of the Municipality of Sirolowe had approved a variation to the master plan to authorize a private individual to build a golf course on agricultural land. Reported together with the mayor by environmentalists, convicted at first instance, acquitted on appeal. With honneurs. The judge acknowledged that we had acted in accordance with good governance».
Traverses all ended well, but inevitably they also marked their private lives. «Precisely on that occasion, it was the nineties – recalls Lucchetti -, i news talked about Mani Pulite, of scandals and corruption. My daughter who was still little asked me: “Dad, did you take money too?”. It was something that struck me a lot.”
Now that finally he no longer has any unfinished business and you can enjoy your pension, he reflects that «if one knows he has acted correctly and that he has protected the public interest, there is no need to panic.” Ultimately, he adds, his story proves that justice works. “Although I have something to say about certain judges».
