Posted on 03/20/2002 7:52:49 AM PST by Nita Nupress
That kind of thing doesn't happen, and if it would, it would never happen to them, because they would never do anything wrong, or ever be in the wrong place at the wrong time..... /sarcasm
Boy howdy.....they sure didn't do all that ignoring stuff to get Westerfield convicted.....do ya think that's because they had REAL evidence to convict HIM?
Nurse's Family Sues Safra
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 3, 2002, 4:38 PM EST
The children of one of billionaire banker Edmund Safra’s nurses have filed a $100 million lawsuit charging that Safra caused their mother’s death in his Monaco home just before he was killed there in a fire.
Jason Torrente, 30, and Genevieve Torrente, 23, children of Vivian Torrente, say in court papers that their mother died with Safra on Dec. 3, 1999, in a locked bathroom in his duplex penthouse atop a Monte Carlo branch of the Republic Bank of New York.
The siblings’ court papers say an autopsy report disclosed “combat-like” marks on their mother’s neck and blood in her thyroid gland, indicating that “Mr. Safra restrained her and prevented her escape” while the bathroom filled with smoke from a fire set by another nurse.
“Vivian Torrente also had bruises on her knees and Mr. Safra’s DNA under her fingernails, further confirming that Mr. Safra’s efforts to restrain her were the direct and proximate cause of her death,” court papers say.
Safra, 67, founder of Republic Bank, and Torrente, 52, of Bergenfield, N.J., died in the bathroom blaze. He had Parkinson’s disease and required constant nursing care.
The banker’s other nurse, Ted Maher, 44, of Stormville, N.Y., was convicted and sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for the arson deaths. The charges carried a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Defense lawyers said Maher, a former U.S. Army Green Beret who admitted setting the fire, did not intend to kill Safra and the nurse. His intention was to trigger the fire alarm, rescue Safra and be considered a hero.
Maher, originally from Auburn, Maine, told prosecutors his $600-a-day position with Safra was “the most beautiful job” he ever had. But Maher also said Safra’s chief nurse belittled him and he feared losing his job.
The Torrente siblings’ lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, says they did not learn exactly how their mother died until the autopsy report was publicly disclosed at Maher’s trial.
For this reason, court papers say, the Torrente siblings were “fraudulently deceived and misled” into signing a settlement agreement while “critical information, including the autopsy report, was intentionally withheld from them.”
The Torrentes’ lawyer, Kenneth McCallion, said his clients received a “minuscule” settlement amount — “in the hundreds of thousands” of dollars — in light of what is now known about their mother’s death and the settlement should be nullified.
“We believe the so-called settlement is invalid because the underlying cause of Vivian Torrente’s death was not properly disclosed,” McCallion said.
He said the “suppression” of that information is why they are suing.
Defendants named by the Torrente siblings’ lawsuit include Safra’s estate, “believed to be worth billions of dollars,” according to the lawsuit; Safra’s wife, Lily Safra; Vivian Torrente’s nursing agency, Spotless & Brite; three insurance firms and 10 “John and Jane Does.”
No spokesperson for the Safra estate or the nursing agency could be found for comment.
Laura Orgon, a spokeswoman for Lloyds of London, had no comment.
Keith Owens, a spokesman for Zurich Insurance Co., said he hadn’t seen the lawsuit and couldn’t comment.
The third insurance company, Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., did not immediately return telephone calls for comment.
Republic Bank merged in 1999 with HSBC Banking Corp. Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
Shooting ducks in a barrel, Monaco prosecutor Daniel Serdet is all wet.
At the outset, Daniel Serdet lied that Ted was using drugs.
Princess Grace Memorial Hospital tested Ted and the results were shown on DatelineNBC November 21, 2000, "Who Killed the Billionaire?":
negatif negatif negatif
Serdet claimed nurse Vivian Torrente died of asphyxiation, but the autopsy noted her thyroid was completely infused with blood;
Vivian bore trauma labelled "combat bruising", and the DNA of Edmond Safra was under her nails.
Vivian's panties, bra and barette-style nursing cap were spattered with Edmond Safra's blood.
A British account states the bloody knickers could not be explained by the prosecution.
Nor could it explain the unidentified male DNA under Edmond Safra's fingernails.
It wasn't that of Ted Maher.
Now Jason and Genevieve Torrente are suing Lily:
“Vivian Torrente also had bruises on her knees and Mr. Safra’s DNA under her fingernails, further confirming that Mr. Safra’s efforts to restrain her were the direct and proximate cause of her death,” court papers say.
From another European source:
Yesterday, reports continued to circulate about rumours that two bullet wounds were found in his body, and prosecutors conceded they had no explanation for the presence of an unknown man's DNA under Mr. Safra's fingernails.
Lily cremated Edmond effectively destroying forensic evidence.
She buried him in Switzerland instead of Israel where he'd wanted to be buried.
Vivian is in New Jersey and can be easily exhumed.
Lily tried to buy off Vivian's husband Ireneo with $2,000,000 of the three billion she got by changing Edmond's will.
Although she thereby staved off an insurance investigation, Ireneo got greedy apparently, and fired his attorneys who are now suing him.
Serdet and Monaco don't have anything more than they had three years ago: an extorted false confession.
Hi, Launcey.
During the day of the incident in which Safra and Torrente died:
Did Ted Maher deliberately start the fire? (y / n / don't know))
Ted tried to get the police by calling but they would not respond. He used a candle to trigger a detector and summon the fire department. That alarm went in at 4:54 a.m.
If so, did he start the fire so that he could "save" Safra in order to ingratiate himself to Safra? (y / n / don't know)
That is a fabrication of prosecutor Daniel Serdet and the Monaco police. Ted had written a letter of resignation and was returning to Columbia-Presbyterian; its nursing strike had ended. The job on Safra's staff had a set term.
Did Ted stab or otherwise injure himself? (y / n / don't know)
Ted was cut by two intruders. The cuts required one hundred staples and numerous transfusions. The police destroyed Ted's original clothing and substituted brand-new sportswear which would not be allowed on Safra's staff on duty.
Did Ted tell the authorities who arrived on the scene that there were armed intruders on the premises? (y / n / don't know)
Ted staggered down to the maitre d who summoned the ambulance. He was not able to say anything.
All I need here are the "yes", "no", or "don't know" answers. (I'm familiar with all the discepancies, withheld information and evidence, etc., etc., etc., etc.)
That's the outline of events in as concise a form as possible.
Thanks!
Regards,
LH
2249 posted on 12/03/2002 8:21 PM PST by Lancey Howard
Sonia was disliked and the dislike was reflected in a rapid turnover of staff.
There were occasions when the previous shift had administered medication and somehow the notation was removed from the log--so that the next shift might have overdosed Edmond Safra.
Ted was watchful for that eventuality and avoided the trap.
It seems slipshod from Sonia who was paid so well by Lily.
Someone in New York said her husband sold a gun soon after the death of Edmond Safra. The name was the same, but who can say?
Regarding the fire, the fire report notes multiple sources of ignition on the sixth floor, which were never explained.
The sudden conflagration at 6 a.m. was an hour after Ted was rushed to the hospital.
The category three bulletproof glass was said to be unbreakable by the firemen--three such references in the fire report.
Yet there is described a 20cm/8in diameter hole in the four-layer, inch and five-sixteenths glass, and it is shown on the Dateline episode.
If the firemen couldn't break the glass, what caused the hole?
Monaco's bloody knickers' syndrome.
SAFRA ‘KILLED' NURSE: LAWSUIT
By DAREH GREGORIAN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- December 4, 2002 -- His caretaker was found guilty of the killing, but the children of Vivian Torrente say in a $100 million lawsuit that slain billionaire Edmond Safra was the one responsible for their mother's death. Ted Maher, 44, was convicted Monday of arson leading to both Safra's and Torrente's deaths on Dec. 3, 1999, when he set a blaze in the financier's Monaco apartment in a failed bid to make himself look like a hero by "rescuing" Safra.
The action by Jason and Genevieve Torrente, however, charges that it was actually a desperate and crazed Safra who doomed their mom.
"There is very graphic evidence pointing to Mr. Safra's culpability in Vivian Torrente's death," said the kids' lawyer, Kenneth McCallion.
Maher and Torrente, 52, were both assigned to provide nursing care to the 67-year-old Safra, who suffered from Parkinson's disease.
The Manhattan State Supreme Court suit says Safra apparently locked himself inside of his bathroom with Torrente after the fire broke out and viciously blocked her attempts to leave. During the criminal trial, Maher's lawyer had contended that Safra was paranoid armed intruders were outside the bathroom door.
The suit says Torrente's autopsy showed "there were ‘combat-like' marks on [her] neck . . . and blood in her thyroid, indicating that Vivian Torrente struggled to escape the bathroom where she and Mr. Safra were located, and that Mr. Safra restrained her and prevented her escape."
The mom "also had bruises on her knees and Mr. Safra's DNA under her fingernails," the suit says. Both died of asphyxiation. McCallion said the autopsy report was "inconclusive" as to whether she was asphyxiated by the smoke or by Safra putting her in a choke hold.
The suit adds that Jason, 30, and Genevieve, 23, didn't know about the autopsy report until Maher's trial - and accuses Safra's widow, Lily, of conspiring with various insurance companies to keep the details of their mother's death a secret.
It also says Torrente's husband, Irineo Torrente, convinced the kids to sign off on a settlement agreement before they found out about the circumstances of her death.
Published reports say that deal was for $2 million, half of which the kids were supposed to split, but McCallion said the children have received only "minuscule sums. What the father got, we don't know at this point."
Lily Safra could not be reached for comment yesterday, but earlier this week said Maher's conviction had cleared her husband of any wrongdoing in Torrente's death.
On behalf of Ted Maher...
-BTTT-
Prayers for Ted Maher's safety and for the truth to be told/come out.
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