Ted Maher is indeed a political prisoner being held against his will for something he did not do but was coerced into confessing. Plenty of evidence was presented to support this reality but of course some idiots choose not to look at it and believe otherwise.
As someone once said, the law is an a**. I just wonder how these people would feel if it was them that was railroaded this way.
All the best to you and the Maher family. Regards.
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.