Admitted as civil parties are the BAT Bar Association, the Municipality of Andria and the Ministry of the Interior, as well as the anti-racket association while the new hearing is set for next July 12th. We returned to the courtroom this morning, at the Court of Bari, for the trial with immediate judgment against six suspects in the context of an investigation which concerns the accusations of extortion, attempted and consummated, and of usury with the aggravating circumstance of mafia method in Andria.
At the final stage, therefore, is the first level of judgment of the investigation which saw the arrests of some members of the Pesce di Andria clan between September and October last year. This morning the hearing before the preliminary hearing judge of the Court of Bari Ronzino. The trial sees the brothers Oscar Davide and Gianluca Pesce, aged 34 and 36 respectively, both in prison since September 29th. Also on trial are Michela Altomare Caldarone, 28 years old, Giuseppe Loconte, 22 years old, Nicolas Nicolamarino, 32 years old, and the lawyer Tiziana Favullo, 50 years old. The accusations of extortion and usury with a mafia method come from the prosecutor of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, Daniela Chimienti. For Giuseppe Loconte and the lawyer Favullo, the request for a trial with an abbreviated “dry” procedure was granted. In the next hearing, therefore, there could already be a sentence for them. The prosecutor, however, should formulate the requests for the others. The establishment of a civil party in the municipality of Andria, the institution explains, aims at the need to take a clear position against the criminal and mafia organizations in the area. The municipality will ask for compensation for the damages suffered by the community.
The investigations would have ascertained several extortion episodes including the one relating to the alleged extortion against a Local Police officer, from Andria but on duty in Barletta, involved in a road accident with Michela Altomare Caldarone, partner of Oscar Davide Pesce. The latter allegedly threatened the traffic policeman, forcing him to repair the woman’s car at his expense, without filing a complaint with the insurance company. As for the lawyer Favullo, the key episode would be an alleged usurious loan that the Pesces allegedly granted to a young merchant. Faced with an initial debt of 23 thousand euros, the young man would have had to repay almost double after just a month. Which is why the young man’s mother, worried about the threats addressed to her son, turned to the lawyer under investigation who in the meantime was handling the matter relating to the sale of a property on her behalf. According to her accusation, the civil lawyer organized a meeting with the Pesce clan in her office with the aim of deferring the payment and demonstrating – again according to what emerged from the investigations – that thanks to the sale of that property the woman would be able to pay off the son’s debt. The lawyer Favullo, during the interrogation, always rejected the accusations, claiming to be unrelated to the facts.
