So, it’s been a bit of a rough stretch the past few weeks. There was the dreaded computer virus, followed by snow delays, mucho business travel, and then, shoulder surgery. I type this under duress of using my left hand and have already corrected about 5 typos just to get this far.
Still, I am thinking of you and tell myself you come here for information on overseas prosecution because let’s face it, I am not that interesting. So, I press on in all my one-handed glory.
I have reviewed emails from the stretch of Jan-April 2009 and see that it was a rather quiet time on the communication front. The Public Prosecutor of Rome was busy conducting her investigation of the assault, so my attorneys had nothing to do and hardly anything to communicate to me. Meanwhile, I was recovering from shoulder surgery and dipping my toe into some semblance of a social life.
Then, two events happened in quick succession. First, I was charged with promoting a film that featured a central character with strong ties to Italy. Gulp. The month of April saw me receiving interview requests from all manner of Italian media outlets. Three of the writers were named Marco. Imagine that for a second. There I am, always on pins and needles that somehow my case with Marco would leak to the Italian media, and my inbox begins filling up with email from the leading Italian media outlets and men named Marco. As much as it made me sweaty and nervous to interact with them, it also comforted me somewhat that I’d be making contacts with them should I ever need them later on if I went to trial.
Having made it through the film premiere, I looked forward to some down time. In the first week of May, after I turned 32, began dating and had the full use of my repaired shoulder, I received notice from my attorney that the Prosecutor requested my presence in Rome for a first-person interview. I remember opening that email and feeling a jolt of surprise and dread. I just was not expecting such a request and neither was my attorney who called it “bizarre” that she wouldn’t have opted for the more reasonable route of interviewing me via satellite from an office in New York. But no, at my expense and on my time, she wanted me there in the next couple of weeks – for a Wednesday afternoon interview.
Well, I made sure to send the Prosecutor a letter assuring her of my committment to seeing this through and that I looked forward to the opportunity to tell her my story in person. I asked for more time and was able to push it to early June which happens to be the most expensive month for travel to Italy (think: backpacking college grads). But the extra time helped me prepare myself mentally and it allowed my parents to plan flights to meet me in Rome because Lord knows I’d need their support. One $1000 plane ticket later (for a Tuesday-Thursday flight), the securing of a bodyguard (more on that next post) and a hotel reservation for my parents and myself, and I was ready to go. Sort of.
A Fight Back Woman 