A Vatican priest who led police on a high speed car chase leaving three officers injured after being caught in a red light zone, has been cleared.Father Cesare Burgazzi, 51, said he 'floored' his Ford Focus car after he mistook the plain clothes officers who tried to flag him down during a spot check as robbers.
During the twenty minute early hours chase - which was described in court as 'like something from a Hollywood movie' two police cars crashed and three police left injured.
Prosecutor Maria Bice Barborini had asked the court in Rome to jail Father Burgazzi for eighteen months after describing the events of May 2006 to judge Ettore Pedicini but he ruled 'the facts did not constitute a crime' and he was cleared.
She had told the court how the priest who worked at the Vatican's State Department and was also a master of ceremonies at St Peter's Basilica was spotted in a red light district of Rome, popular with trans sexual and prostitutes.
Officers gave chase after Father Burgazzi was spotted driving slowly and tried to flag him down but instead drove off at high speed.
When he eventually stopped he told stunned officers: 'You have no idea who I am. You don't know who you are messing with.'
Father Burgazzi was accused of wounding, resisting arrest and failing to produce documents for the car or his identity when stopped.
His lawyer, Gianni Lostia, had told the court in Rome: 'My client is not a user of prostitutes or transsexuals - he did not have condoms in his car and he contests the police's claim that the front seats were reclined.
'He was simply on his way home after a night out at a restaurant with priest friends. He thought the officers who had tried to stop him were trying to rob him and he panicked and drove off.'
Stunned lawyer Daniela D'Apice, who had been defending the officers and was also looking for 20,000 Euro in damages for injuries suffered, said: 'If refusing to stop, driving off at high speed, crashing into a police car and injuring officers does not constitute a crime I don't know what does.'
Neither Father Burgazzi or his lawyer would comment on the verdict.
Judge Pedicini has a reputation for tough sentences and in the past has convicted Mafia mobsters and armed bank robbers to lengthy terms behind bars.
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