The judge of the preliminary investigations of Crotone, Assunta Palumbo, at the conclusion of the trial celebrated with an abbreviated procedure, imposed 6 sentences and decided on as many plea deals in the Carabinieri investigation which, in November last year, uncovered a system of corruption at the ‘Pertini-Santoni’ upper secondary professional school in Crotone.
The corruption system and the details of the sentence
According to the accusatory thesis, the Pertini-Santoni was the epicenter of favours, episodes of corruption, answers given in advance to the participants of a competition for support teachers and altered selections. Late today the Gup of the Court of Crotone applied the sentence agreed between the prosecution and the defence. Ida Sisca, former principal of the “Pertini-Santoni” of Crotone, accused of having set up a system of favors and corruption with the high school at the center between 2021 and 2022, has agreed to a plea agreement for 4 years and 6 months in prison. Plea agreement also went to Ernesto Calabretta, son-in-law of the former school director and former head of the “E-Campus” educational center, who will have to serve 3 years and 8 months, and to four others defendants: Maria Luigia Cusato who settled for 8 months; Gaetano Cusato, 1 year and 10 months; Lucia Rita Muscò, 2 years and 8 months; and Vittorio Bitonti, 6 months and 20 days. The preliminary hearing judge then defined the position of the defendants who opted for the abbreviated trial and sentenced six teachers: the vice-principal Francesca Arcuri to 2 years and 6 months; Daniela De Fazio 1 year and 8 months; Giovanni Fabiano 4 months and 20 days; Ornella Pecoraro 2 years and 4 months; Rosanna Basso 2 years and Vincenzo Basile 2 years and 4 months. Finally, 10 were sent to trial: Elisabetta Pace, Gianfranco De Martino, Stefania Pizzuto, Domenico Ciurleo, Giovanni Carbone, Marica Fiorentino, Stefania Fregale, Marta Lucente, Bruno Mercurio and Marzia Grillo. The trial for them will begin on 7 July in front of the Crotone Court.
The origin of the investigation: from the complaint to the construction works
The investigations into the Crotone school started from the complaint presented to the police by a **building contractor**. According to the accusation, the head teacher forced him to give up some sums of money for interventions carried out in the house of one of his family members, otherwise threatening not to entrust him with any more contracts for work in the institute.
The investigations launched by the Carabinieri investigators then brought to light a series of episodes in which Sisca and Calabretta were said to be the protagonists. On that occasion, the former head teacher of the same institute, Ida Sisca, and her son-in-law Ernesto Calabretta, owner of the Ecampus educational center, ended up under arrest. A total of 23 people were registered on the register of suspects, accused, for various reasons, of embezzlement, attempted and completed extortion, corruption, revelation of official secrets, fraud, forgery, undue inducement to give and receive benefits and aiding and abetting.
Rigged tests and administrative irregularities
The former head teacher and his son-in-law, among other things, thanks to Fabiano’s intermediation, would have revealed to numerous candidates, upon payment of a sum of money, the answers to the questions of the pre-selective tests of a competition for support teachers announced by the ‘Link Campus’ university of Rome for the 2021-2022 school year.
Furthermore, principal Sisca would have covered the unjustified absence from work of another fixed-term teacher, daughter of the same school director, to whom 3,376 euros were unduly paid. The case of a candidate who was found suitable for the hiring of support teachers without any specific assessment, based on a mendacious CV not even attached to the documents, also came under scrutiny.