“Today I am serene but I have been through terrible times”. Randi Ingerman, the 56-year-old actress from Philadelphia has decided to tell us about her drama. A difficult life, a depression kept hidden because “everyone wanted me beautiful and strong” and a lawsuit for fraud against her of hundreds of thousands of euros by a law firm.
Randi, tell us what happened?
“When I turned to the law firm of the lawyer Zappa it was a period of my life in which I was not working and therefore I did not have much economic availability. The lawyer Serena Grassi, who collaborated with Zappa, agreed to assist me free of charge and was very happy to do so”.
Is Serena Grassi the lawyer you reported for fraud against you?
“Exactly. He will go to trial for this. From the beginning, Attorney Grassi showed me a dedication that today, looking back, I would define as excessive. He went beyond the simple attorney-client relationship: he tried to gain my trust with great skill, becoming familiar day after day even on a personal level. I have been suffering from serious health problems for years. Since 2016, I have been one hundred percent disabled…”
Would you like to tell us about it?
“Of course. I suffer from epilepsy. A completely disabling disease because I get sudden violent attacks that were also the cause of the interruption of my professional career.”
Since when have you been suffering from it?
“Two terrible bereavements triggered everything. In 2005 I lost my brother’s daughter, just born. She was breastfed but probably because her mother was taking heavy drugs, my niece stopped breathing. Two years later I lost my brother to an overdose of antidepressants. I practically went crazy.”
How do you manage to live with this illness?
“Very difficult. I fall into the category of 30 percent of drug-resistant people. I take light therapeutic cannabis to try to contain the attacks but there is nothing that can prevent them. Totally disabling.”
Let’s go back to the complaint.
“First, it is important to remember that during the period in which I was assisted by Serena Grassi, I was hospitalized for six weeks at the Niguarda hospital in Milan for third-degree burns on my back. I underwent three skin grafts.”
What had happened to her?
“An epileptic fit in a Turkish bath and I remained attached to the steam nozzle.”
What does the law firm have to do with this episode?
“It has something to do with the extent to which Serena Grassi took advantage of my vulnerability to get closer and closer to me. I think the idea of seeing me hanging on her every word made her feel important.”
What do you accuse her of today?
“For having offered me compensation worth 277 thousand euros, for having made me believe that I had won an appeal against the INPS and for having dragged a clinic to court.”
Was it all true?
“Nothing. Some cases had actually been filed but lost. The serious thing was that they showed me alleged forged documents with false signatures of magistrates.”
Has money ever been stolen from you?
«Not directly, but I was certain that I had the money from the cases I had won and I acted accordingly».
With what spirit will you approach this process?
“With my head held high, with strength and determination. My only regret was that I trusted dishonest people, because I didn’t have the financial capacity to sustain the expenses of more important law firms.”
Let’s not send the message that non-prominent lawyers are incompetent scammers.
“Absolutely not. There are very good and fortunately very fair lawyers. Like years ago, the lawyer Annamaria Bernardini De Pace who, in the most difficult moment of my life, assisted me together with her law firm for free with competence and professionalism.”
I feel she is very combative.
“Yes, today I feel strong, I live day by day and I look forward with optimism. Despite everything I believe in justice and I am confident since the criminal case is on the right track thanks to the lawyer Steccanella.”
Would she like to go back to being an actress?
«I miss it a lot and I hope to do it again soon even if today I’m very busy with my program Naked, getting naked, dedicated to mental health».
