The other shoe has dropped in the case of Memphis IT CEO Mark Giannini. Multiple news services report that he has been indicted and arrested for four counts of aggravated rape and two counts of rape. George Brown of News3 reports that the embattled mogul “was taken into custody by the US Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force in a Clearwater, Florida hotel.” He was apprehended without incident.
Here is our original post on this fascinating and horrifying case:
commentary by Patrick H. Moore
In the eyes of many, crime in America is often associated with the poorer and less educated segments of our society. The reality, however, is that violent crime and rape occur among the working class, the middle class, and the upper-middle class/wealthy.
It’s just been disclosed that a particularly grotesque and repugnant rape was allegedly committed by a wealthy Memphis-area businessman, Mark Giannini, the co-founder of IT company Service Assurance. Giannini resides in Eads which is apparently an exclusive suburb of Memphis.
Michael McLaughlin of Huffington Post writes:
Recently released police documents detail an alleged grotesque rape of a mother of four who wanted a housekeeping job in the home of a Memphis businessman.
The suspect is the businessman himself, Mark Giannini, the co-founder of IT company Service Assurance, according to WREG. He allegedly repeatedly raped a 26-year-old for several hours until she blacked out on June 19.
Giannini possessed expensive handguns, prescription narcotics (some of which apparently had been diverted), a trove of sex toys including handcuffs, and women’s panties arranged by size. He is 49 years old and drives a Lamborghini and a Jaguar. (I say “drives” a Lamborghini and a Jaguar present tense because, somewhat surprisingly, Giannini was released from custody after posting a bond of $150,000).
According to the police report, when the authorities searched his posh residence on June 23rd, they found more than $16,000 in cash, 24 firearms, Viagra, Xanax, hydrocodone and other medications.
(The police report can be accessed here but readers should be forewarned that it contains an extremely graphic description of the alleged rape, unlike anything I have ever read before.)
According to Eric Lipford, Sabrina Hall and George Brown of WREG3, the victim’s reported ordeal began when “she informed a friend she was looking for extra employment. The friend reportedly told Giannini, who the victim said showed up at her job June 17 and told her he needed a house cleaner and office help.”
The woman told law enforcement that she called Giannini two days later on June 19th and told him she was interested “in some work, at which time he told her he would pick her up” and drive her to his home in order to give her “an overview of the house cleaning and office work he needed done.”
Once they arrived at his home, the woman said Giannini gave her an orange-colored drink that he told her was similar to a “pop-up”. She drank it and as she walked around Giannini’s palatial digs, she became uncomfortable, she reports, because “she saw strange things in the house, like a skeleton hanging in the den.”
She then told Giannini that she wanted to go home but instead of acquiescing to her request, “he began kissing her aggressively and pulling her hair.”
This in turn, according to the crime report, led to Giannini allegedly performing (and forcing the alleged victim to perform) almost unimaginably vile sexual acts on the woman against her will. Among other things, Giannini forced the victim to consume urine, blood and fecal matter, while telling her these perverse actions were “part of the job interview, according to WBTV”.
Adding a little touch of Americana to the whole demented scene, much of the rape occurred “over a three hour period on top of an American flag towel.”
According to deputies, when Giannini was finished, he had an employee take the victim to a Motel 6, where her family found her before “taking her to the hospital”.
The woman’s family said she “was in a mentally altered state and in and out of consciousness.”
Staff at Baptist Hospital where she was treated said she was foaming at the mouth with, “similar medical conditions to a seizure or overdose.”
The woman herself says she blacked out and doesn’t know how she got back to the nearby Motel 6 where her family found her.
Naturally, Giannini’s attorney said his client is not guilty and claims he was set up, according to WNCN.
Giannini has hired the so-called dream team Steve Farese and Leslie Ballin to defend him.
“We think the facts will show the he is innocent, that he wasn’t the one who called her. She called him to come get her,” Farese said. “There’s another witness who took her home and this certainly looks like a staged event.”
You think? Will the “facts” ultimately show that this was all a set-up designed to blackmail the rich guy? I hope not but only time will tell… If it was a staged event, it seems odd that she was in such bad shape at the end of the encounter that she was “foaming at the mouth.”
Although it took a few days, after hearing the alleged victim’s report, detectives went to Giannini’s gated home on June 23. A man (not Giannini) spoke to the officers on the intercom system and said the suspect was not home. According to another affidavit, he refused to allow the investigators to enter the property.
Not to be denied, the detectives forced themselves onto the grounds and found wet footprints leading into the woods in back of the home.
Shortly thereafter, Giannini appeared and presented himself to officers on the street outside of his home. According to a detective’s sworn statement, he was “perspiring profusely and had fresh cuts and scratches on his legs.”
The alleged rapist has been charged with two counts of aggravated rape, two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of a firearm, according to Fox 13.
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It is reported that Giannini’s bail was originally set at $1,000,000 before being reduced to $150,000 leading to his release on bond. The fact he made bond is outrageous. Based on the charges, he is clearly a “threat to the community” and should be behind bars, which, I suspect, is precisely where he would be if he were not a wealthy “shaker and mover.”
But hey, at least they arrested the guy and that’s a start.