Saturday, May 25, 2013

Charlotte G. Durante has been diagnosed with a brain tumor that can cause blindness

Charlotte G. Durante has a brain tumor.
Back in November 2012 the eye doctor contracted by the Palm Beach County Jail ordered an MRI because he observed a mass behind Charlotte G. Durante's optic nerve. Another MRI was done on May 7, 2013. The tumor is behind the optic nerve in the Pituitary gland and can cause sudden blindness. The trial began on April 8, 2013. Presiding Judge Charles Burton  of the Palm Beach County Circuit Court denied a request to delay the trial to allow Charlotte G. Durante time for medical treatment and exams by her own primary physician. Charlotte G. Durante was railroad into trial. After Charlotte G. Durante was wrongfully convicted on April 15th, presiding Judge Charles Burton refused to allow Durante to remain on house arrest until sentencing so that she could continue her medical treatment and exams from her own primary physician.   Judge Charles Burton has been very hostile towards and bias against Charlotte G. Durante. 
Some of Charlotte G. Durante’s medical conditions that developed while confined in jail now include (but not limited to):
  • Brain tumor that can cause sudden blindness
  • Glaucoma
  • Vision Loss
  • Bleeding hemorrhoids
  • Degenerative disease
Charlotte G. Durante is facing up to 30 years in prison because of the wrongful conviction.
 

Charlotte G. Durante's new sentencing date for the wrongful conviction is Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 1pm.
 
For more information regarding Charlotte G. Durante of Delray Beach, Florida, the false accusations and wrongful conviction, visit charlottedurante.org

Friday, May 3, 2013

Charlotte G. Durante was Wrongfully Convicted of an alleged crime that she did not commit. Motion for New Trial submitted to Court

April 15, 2013 (rev4-30-13)

Dear Family, Friends and Community:
 

RE:  Wrongful Conviction of Charlotte G. Durante

 
Thank you so much for your amazing and comforting prayers. My mother Charlotte G. Durante is extremely grateful for the prayers and she also continues to pray for others in need. My mother says she does not believe in selfish prayers and is aware that other people may be facing trials and tribulations so each day she prayers for many people.
 

As a re-cap, on Monday, April 8th when my mother and I walked into the court room for jury selection the court-appointed attorney Thomas Montgomery blindsided us by handing to my mother a Motion to withdraw from the case. It stated in the Motion that my mother had requested that he use a "strategy" that he cannot use because it would be unethical. We did not know what Attorney Montgomery was talking about because he never discussed any "strategy" with us. But, Attorney Montgomery threw my mother under the bus by divulging that alleged "strategy" to Judge Burton and the Prosecution Team. Montgomery's Motion was denied by Judge Burton thus my mother submitted a Motion to the Court to fire/dismiss Attorney Montgomery which Judge Burton also denied. Then, Attorney Montgomery twice renewed his motion to withdraw which Judge Burton denied. This is all a matter of public record. The sequential order of this situation is important.
 

On March 21st, my mother Charlotte G. Durante was released on House Arrest after her bond had been lowered last month too. The following week on March 25th Attorney Montgomery came to my parent’s home and met with my mother. Both my Dad (Kenneth Durante) and I were there for the meeting. At that meeting, Attorney Montgomery said he "looked at the evidence" and the Prosecution Team "doesn't have anything" against my mother because this case is about allegedly owing money, she did not recruit the alleged investors, etc. We then inquired about why a trial is necessary and could Attorney Montgomery submit a request to the State Attorney that the Charges need to dropped. Attorney Montgomery replied to us by saying "I cannot do that because I have conflict of interest because I worked on Attorney Dave Aronberg's (election) campaign for State Attorney." We thought that reply was curious but did not challenge it, at that time, because Montgomery reassured us about the trial. Many news outlets have mentioned that the reason my mother wanted to dismiss Montgomery because he has a conflict of interest with Dave Aronberg but that conflict of interest is what Montgomery told us.

 
Attorney Montgomery did not have to take this case back in December 2012. He agreed to accept the court appointment.

 
Regarding some of the witnesses and their testimony at the trial that started last week, Attorney Montgomery never called any witnesses to speak on my mother's behalf other than me and my mother. However, we kept insisting but he would reply "it's not needed" or he just did not have an answer to us. He was given names of other people who could've testified on my mother's behalf. We consistently kept asking him about it. He said he only needed me and my mother to testify on the witness stand. And, my mother and I had concerns that Attorney Montgomery never scheduled other expert witnesses.
 

Furthermore, Attorney Montgomery only met with my mother twice at her home for about 30 minutes each time before the start of the trial on April 8th. The longest time that he has met with us about preparation for the case was on Friday, April 12th during the 1-hour lunch break to talk with us about taking the witness stand. And, again, we inquired about why no other witnesses were called to speak on my mother's behalf. Since my mother's release, Attorney Montgomery was always in a hurry when he met with my mother twice at her home. He always had to quickly leave for another appointment, court hearing, etc. And, after each court hearing last week or during the lunch break, he always had to quickly rush out and leave the court with no time to talk with us about the case as we kept trying to inquiry about other witnesses for the Defense, other documents that he should present, etc. It was difficult to talk with him in person or on the phone about my mother's case. Some of the documents that my mother provided included were letters to some of the investors where the Museum's real estate transactions were mentioned which was written confirmation that alleged investors knew about the Museum's real estate transactions. My mother gave that document to Attorney Montgomery and requested that it be presented as evidence but he never did and again when we ask him questions sometimes he just does not answer or give an explanation or he has to urgently leave the court room for another appointment, court hearing, etc. Or, he would respond by saying “…look…I know what I am doing…”

Literally, Attorney Montgomery reviewed, for the first time, documents in the evidence file with my mother in the court room while the trial was in session.  During Attorney Montgomery's representation of my mother Charlotte G. Durante his actions against my mother and her case were deceptive, misleading, lacked transparency and he was always pulling-a-fast-one with us and he appeared to be cahoots with Judge Charles Burton and the Prosecution Team.
 

Also, the Attorney Montgomery received a letter from my mother's primary doctor recommending that due to health ailments that developed during the nearly 3-year jail confinement and need for treatment that he does not recommend trial until after the 6-week treatment program for my mother. That letter was sent to Attorney Montgomery directly from my mother's doctor to be included with the Motion to delay the trial for 6 weeks so that my mother can get medical treatment. However, that Motion appears to be a mystery because Judge Burton kept saying he never got it and he said repeatedly that he needs a physician's letter. We kept asking Attorney Montgomery about that Motion he said he prepared but he just replies "I can't talk about that right now" or he just did not answer the question or he has to quickly leave, etc. Attorney Montgomery never re-presented that Motion or doctor's letter when Judge Burton said he never got it. In fact, Judge Burton said that he was willing to allow a special hearing for my mother's doctor to testify and Attorney Montgomery never said anything in response to that offer and he never explained to us why he did not take advantage of that opportunity for the benefit of my mother's health and her ability to stand trial. Because of the lack of action from Attorney Montgomery, my mother then prepared her own Motion to include with the letter from the doctor which was presented to Judge Charles Burton but the judge  refused to consider anything directly from my mother. We have asked for a copy of the medical Motion that Attorney Montgomery said he submitted to the court but Attorney Montgomery has yet to provide it to us.

On Tuesday, April 9th, when my mother was taken to the Emergency Room at the Delray Beach Medical Hospital, Judge Charles Burton made repeated phone calls to the medical staff inquiring about when they plan to release mother Charlotte G. Durante because a trial is supposed to start.  The staff commented that “the Judge just keeps calling us about your mom.  Judge Burton just kept calling and calling and calling the hospital expressing concerns that if my mother is admitted to the hospital it will delay the trial. My mother was examined at the hospital, given IV and prescriptions but she was never admitted to the hospital.   At court on April 9th, Judge Burton then gave the order that the Sheriff’s department was to transport my mother to court on April 10th so that there will be “no more hospital visits.”  This was stated in open court.

 Attorney Montgomery was assigned to the case back in December and since that time he had consistently stated that he was going to depose Detective Casey Thume prior to the trial. About 3 weeks prior to the trial when he met with my mother at my parent's home he announced that he was not going to depose Thume prior to the trial but will just do it on the witness stand. We expressed grave concerns about that decision to not depose Detective Thume prior to the trial. Attorney Montgomery did not depose any witnesses prior to the trial although he stated that he was going to depose other witnesses that were on the State's list. This matter created extreme concern for us and we felt misled.

 At the court hearing on Friday, the Prosecution aired a video of my mother's arrest on May 26, 2010 where they claim it shows my mother grabbing the gun of the police detective who was arresting her. The video does NOT show my mother reaching for Detective Thume's gun. However, the video does show Detective Casey Thume walking in front of my mother and another detective adjacent to my mother and holding my mother’s arm to help with her balance while my mother is handcuffed with her hands behind her back. Then my mother falls forward and another detective then shoves my mother into a seat all while my mother is handcuffed with her hands behind her back. My mother was never charged with resisting arrest, grabbing the detective's gun, etc because it never happened. However, the false gun-grabbing accusation was to further assassinate my mother's character with the jury and with the public via the news. The Prosecution Team spent about 45 minutes on this subject of my mother allegedly grabbing Detective Thume's gun for which my mother was never charged because it never happened. Surely, the Delray Beach Police would’ve included that in their arrest affidavit and it would’ve have been another charge against her if it had happened.

 On Monday, April 15, 2013, prior to closing arguments, Attorney Montgomery requested a mistrial because the police arrest video created a prejudice with the jury. The Prosecution responded by saying it’s important to include the video because it proves (Charlotte Durante’s) “guilt.” In response, as usual, Judge Burton accepted the objection from the Prosecution Team and denied Montgomery’s motion.

 
Sadly, the jury rendered a guilty verdict against my mother Charlotte G. Durante regarding an alleged crime that she did not commit. The jury foreman stated the following after the court hearing on April 15th “Montgomery and Durante insisted they had evidence that would prove investors knew what they were getting into. But, it was never presented to the jury. “It was mainly lack of contrary information from the defense side,” “(Montgomery) didn’t demonstrate anything concrete.”
 

The lacking of “concrete” evidence is not because we did not make efforts to provide the “concrete” evidence to Attorney Montgomery. He also never gave a directive to us about what evidence he needed however we did bring various documents to court that we knew proved my mother’s innocence but it was not presented by Attorney Montgomery.
 

Delray Beach Detective Casey Thume and the Prosecution Team told investors prior to the trial that because the Museum is a non-profit, it’s a crime to loan monies to a non-profit. And, as I have stated before, many of the investors gave the same robotic statements on the witness stand and also claimed they met my mother at her office, at their homes, at their works, etc. However, many of those investors are people whom my mother never met. Plus, many of those alleged witnesses who took the stand were previously deposed by my mother’s previous attorneys and they stated that they had never met my mother and/or they gave their monies to someone else who then told them that the monies were invested with Durante Realty. But, during cross-examination at the trial, Attorney Montgomery did not present that evidence.


My mother Charlotte G. Durante never lied or misled anybody about her real estate transactions. She never lied about monies being used for the real estate purchases for the Museum. The Museum was not a secret – there was no reason to lie about it. Attorney Montgomery also failed to provide as evidence that I’ve always been a non-paid volunteer for the Museum. I do not receive a salary, no hourly wages, no monies from the Museum. Also, monies raised are used to support programming, permanent facility, etc. And, my mother never received a commission for the real estate purchases for the Museum. She donated her services. There was no financial gain.
 
As I previously conveyed, the alleged investors with Durante Realty began with Calypso Louis who brought in Massillon Dorolian who were all duly informed about the non-profit Museum. They had their own investment club and reached out to Durante Realty about partnering with them to help them with the investment club. Again, the Prosecution Team's emphasis was whether or not the alleged investors knew about the Museum. And, some of what the other investors knew or not is based on what they were told by the people who invested their monies with Durante Realty but my mother never lied and never asked anybody to lie.
 

Regarding the alleged monies owed, on December 6, 2008, news reporter Terri Parker of WPBF CH. 25 aired an ambush-style slanderous news story about alleged monies that Durante Realty owed to alleged investors. The news story included an interview with Massillon Dorolian at the office of Attorney Annie Adkins who has been identified as the private attorney for the alleged investors. The timing of the news story is suspicious because on December 4, 2008, I hosted a sold-out luncheon in the Town of Palm Beach for the fundraising campaign for the MLFH’s proposed permanent buildings. It took 12 months to plan that luncheon because it was a major event with local philanthropists and also philanthropists who traveled from Connecticut and New York to attend the luncheon. But, all of that was sabotaged by the WPBF news story, and undermining actions by the Attorney Annie Adkins, the Prosecution Team and Delray Beach Police Detective Casey Thume. That slanderous news story was engineered by the Attorney Annie Adkins, the Prosecution Team and Delray Beach Detective Casey Thume. My mother and I did not know about that news story until after it aired. And, my mother did not know she was being investigated until that news story aired. Terri Parker sent my mother an e-mail after the news story aired (as evidence, we still have a copy of that e-mail). We have no other evidence that Ms. Parker tried to reach me or my mother about that news story prior to the news story being aired across the globe. And, we had never heard of Attorney Adkins prior to that news story. Attorney Adkins never sent a demand letter to Durante Realty or Durante Realty’s attorney regarding alleged monies owed. Per the letter from Attorney Adkins she made the conclusion that mother committed an alleged crime. We don’t know how she made that conclusion. Furthermore, we learned from the letter that Attorney Adkins is NOT and was NEVER the attorney for the alleged investors. Attached is the letter which Attorney Adkins mailed to alleged investors in November 2008 (which pre-dates the December 6, 2008 news story) that states she is not the attorney for the alleged investors. The Adkins letter was mass-mailed to alleged investors. And, although Attorney Adkins was not and has never been the attorney for the alleged investors, she had a leading role in corrupting their minds against Durante Realty and encouraging them to make complaints about Charlotte G. Durante and Durante Realty. Attorney Adkins collected data from the alleged investors to give to the Delray Beach Police Department. Based on independent research: 1. Attorney Adkins was never the attorney for the alleged investors. 2. Although not an attorney for the alleged investors, she recruited, collected data from the alleged investors and directed them to file a complaint with the Delray Beach Police Department. 3. Attorney Adkins never contacted Durante Realty about alleged monies owed – no demand letter was ever sent to Durante Realty from Attorney Adkins. 4. Attorney Annie Adkins  was the person who filed the initial complaint with the Delray Beach Police Department and not the alleged investors.

And, what we also recently learned about Attorney Annie Adkins is that during the time frame (2008 to present?) she was presented as the private attorney for the alleged investors, Attorney Adkins was also appointed as an Assistant to the State Attorney from January 2010 to April 2010. Her appointment ended April 2010. My mother was arrested on May 26, 2010. That appointment explains why Attorney Adkins appeared as the spokesperson for the case in the news media. Her job position with the State Attorney’s office was never publicly identified but while she continued to recruit alleged investors to encourage them to file false complaints with the Delray Beach Police Department and she also made public statements against my mother in the news where she was presented as a “private Delray Beach attorney,” Adkins was employed as an attorney for the Office of State Attorney during the same time she was publicly identified as the private attorney for the alleged investors. In other words, while she was a private attorney representing the alleged investors she was also an Assistant State Attorney working on the same case which is what the evidence seems to suggest. Attached is a copy of that appointment. Attorney Thomas Montgomery did submit this evidence during the trial but it was objected by the Prosecution Team and as usual, Judge Burton supported the Prosecution Team’s objection.

The WPBF news story by Terri Parker shot a torpedo thru my mother’s real estate company that was founded nearly 40 years ago. The news story was deliberately engineered to destroy Durante Realty, ruin my mother and hurt the Museum.

The above evidence regarding Attorney Annie Adkins suggests that she was retained by the State Attorney's Office and the Delray Beach Police Department for the sole purpose of initiating the false complaint, charges and wrongful conviction of Charlotte G. Durante.

My mother Charlotte G. Durante has been railroaded regarding an alleged crime that she did not commit.


After the verdict was rendered, Attorney Montgomery, made a motion to the court for my mother to remain on house arrest until the sentencing on June 21, 2013 so that she can continue her medical treatment.  Her medical issues have included external bleeding. The Prosecution Team objected stating that my mother  has made things "difficult" for the court and the “gravity of the charges.” As usual, Judge Burton supported the Prosecution Team and denied Attorney Montgomery’s request.
 

Judge Charles Burton has consistently complained in open court that “Charlotte G. Durante is to blame for the delay in the trial starting.”  Judge Burton also chastised me and my dad in open court for trying to get my mother a reasonable bail. Judge Burton has also pressured every attorney assigned to my mother to go trial when every attorney stated that they needed more time to prepare thus leading attorneys to withdraw from the case.  In fact, back in October 2012, Judge Burton appointed another attorney (pre-dating Thomas Montgomery) on the same day the trial was supposed to start with jury selection.  That attorney had not done any research about the case, did not depose any witnesses and never reviewed the evidence file but Judge Burton wanted that attorney to start the same day as the trial was supposed to start. My mother objected then that attorney just withdrew from the case a few days later.

 I have since spoken with other legal counsel about what needs to be done to get my mother home because she will have another medical set back confined in jail. And, per the recommendation of other legal counsel they believe that my mother should get a new trial. My mother has been served an injustice.  Charlotte G. Durante was railroaded.


$40,000 is the amount that needs to be raised for an appellate attorney to prepare an appeal and to also arrange for a new bond for my mother to be released for medical treatment and pending the appeal.  Charlotte G. Durante could face a maximum of 60 years in prison for an alleged crime that she did not commit.  The Prosecution Team is NOT petitioning the court for time served but they are requesting the court to consider a significant number of years in prison. Plus, the presiding judge Charles Burton is pro-prosecution.
 
Click here to download Motion for New Trial document
Click here for Sun-Sentinel news story about Motion for New Trial
 
Donations in any amount are appreciated.  Checks can be made payable to Charlotte’s Defense Fund and mailed to P.O. Box 7265, Delray Beach, FL  33482.  Thank you so much for your time and prayers. For more information about my mother's case visit http://charlottedurante.org/.

Email: Kennethdurante@aol.com.

 
May God Bless,

Lori

P.O. Box 7265

Delray Beach, FL 33482



Click here to download Motion for New Trial document
Click here for documents regarding Attorney Annie Adkins