Post #307 from "American Green Beret Vet TED MAHER Held HOSTAGE by Monaco for 629 Days (Thread 10)"
Dominick Dunne's Diary~The Safra Passages
December 2001 issue of Vanity Fair
All you followers of the Safra case in Monte Carlo may remember I said in my diary the month before last that a lawyer representing Joseph and Moise Safra - sworn enemies of their late brother's widow, Lily - had appeared on the legal scene. He didn't have much to say in the courtroom at that point, but he later told one of the other lawyers that there might be a bombshell in August, or words to that effect. Nothing untoward happened in August that I know about, but the lawyer, whose name is Philippe Lemaire, went before an appellate court in September. According to a person who was present, Lemaire lashed out "with some extremely grave complaints against the investigation." He listed subjects he felt should be further investigated, including the nature of the gases that were produced by the fire that took Safra's life; the type of extinguishing equipment used; the role of the rescue services; the payments alleged to have been made by Lily Safra to the nurses; the marks on the body of Vivian Torrente, the nurse of Safra's who died with him; the record of the telephone calls made on the night of the tragedy; the lock systems on the doors and valances; and the late changes in Edmond Safra's will.
Back in December 2000, when I first wrote about Edmond Safra's death, I said that among the first people questioned by the police were two Arabs who were staying in the Hotel Hermitage, which abuts the building where Safra's bank and penthouse were. The Hermitage was so close that debris from the fire fell on the terrace of the hotel. The men were released, but in view of the events of September 11, it might be interesting to know who they were.
I met one afternoon with Ted Maher's lawyer Michael Griffith, who will be working hand in hand with the male nurse's two Monte Carlo lawyers when the still-unscheduled case comes to trial. I think all of Philippe Lemaire's requests for further investigation will work in Maher's favor, since they will indicate to a jury that this case is far more complicated than the reported version, which is that Maher set paper on fire in a wastebasket with a scented candle, which resulted in two deaths. The trouble is, there is no money to pay Maher's team of lawyers or necessary expert witnesses. Griffith told me, "We need to achieve as comprehensive a defense as possible for Ted, though we don't have the money, and we're against one of the wealthiest families on earth."
In the meantime, Heidi Maher, Ted's wife, has lost her house in Stormville, New York. After Ted's arrest two years ago, Heidi and the three children moved in with her mother, Joan Wustrau, and rented out their house, which Ted had helped build, but she couldn't keep up the payments. She had to put the house up for sale to support the family.
Lily Safra, who was photographed for this magazine sitting next to the Prince of Wales at a dinner in Buckingham Palace, continues to dazzle international society with the generosity of her gifts. The Princess Grace Awards Gala in New York and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health benefit in Washington were recent recipients of her bounty.
The other Sunday I was on a local train from New Haven, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in New York. A few stops after New Haven, a young woman got on and took the empty seat next to me. I went on reading The New York Times. After about 40 minutes she said to me, "Are you a writer?" I said yes. "For Vanity Fair?" she asked. Yes. "I thought so. I used to work for Edmond Safra," she said. Sometimes I feel like a magnet for people who were involved with the Safras.
"What did you do?" I asked. "I'm a physical therapist. His trainer brought me in. I became his hand therapist, after the Parkinson's. He was a lovely man, very kind. I helped him learn how to pick up things, and I helped train Ted Maher and Vivian Torrente on how to do it before they all went to Monte Carlo. I was never one of the staff. I came to the apartment on Fifth Avenue, did my thing, and left. The house was full of tension - too many nurses just sitting there, too many doctors hovering. There were jealousies. After they left, I was negotiating with one of his aides to go over to Monte Carlo. But then Edmond died, with Vivian."
307 Posted on 11/14/2001 16:04:39 PST by PhilDragoo
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