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Hon. Steven D. Robinson approved the pretrial decision by the Public Defender’s Office to appoint Attorney [REDACTED] to appeal my conviction on Case 81-21904, notwithstanding the fact that I had not requested the representation of a public defender attorney for my appeal. No one ever asked me if I wanted to appeal my conviction. But at the time, I erroneously believed that I had experienced a normal and expected proceeding.
I was wrong. I was being set up! [REDACTED]was a private attorney that frequently requested and accepted cases from the Public Defender’s Office, when they couldn’t handle the overflow of cases. But in my case, [REDACTED]had been preassigned by the Public Defender’s Office, before the outcome of my trial was official, in anticipation of a guilty verdict from the manipulated jury. Late Mr. [REDACTED]never had any intentions of appealing my case.
Without ever placing me on notice, as it is required by the Florida Rules of Court, and in misrepresentation of the facts, [REDACTED]told the Third District Court of Appeals, through an Anders Brief, that after reviewing my case, he couldn’t find any grounds on which to file an appeal; and requested authorization to withdraw himself as my appellate counsel, which was immediately granted, again without any notice to me, either from Samek, or from the Third District Court of Appeals of Florida.
My 30 days to file my own appeal, or to have another attorney file it on my behalf, expired without having been given an opportunity to protest [REDACTED]’s actions and omissions, and to act on my own behalf. I lost my legal right to appeal my bogus conviction. Good grounds existed, two of which I mentioned before through my prior blogs. It took me years to discover what Attorney [REDACTED]had done. When I did, I sent him a letter complaining, but he never provided me with an answer.
Realizing how ignorant I was about the legal system, in early 1984, [REDACTED]demanded from me and eventually received, “$1,200.00 to pay for work that the court was not willing to pay for”. He never filed anything on my behalf to help me vacate my conviction in Case #81-21904.
While I was relying on [REDACTED], I continued with my life, serving my two years under probation without any problem until August of 1984. I had very good probation officers. I could withdraw early from the court ordered psychological treatment program, which I completed with Psychologist Elein Bell. I clearly explained to her what had occurred with Miss R.R.; her family of law enforcement agents; and [REDACTED]. After that, there was nothing else to be discussed. I introduced her to my wife Martha Elena and to my son Noel. She understood. Through the psychological sessions, I discovered that being shot in the head with a Caliber .38 hollow point bullet on December 18, 1980, had affected my brain; and as a result, my personality.
I had become paranoid; suspicious; depressed and way more aggressive than before the holdup attempt in my place of business. I was experiencing constant nightmares; nocturnal panic attacks; loss of sexual desires and other fun activities, such as dancing and eating out with my wife. After I was accused of molesting Miss R.R., I erroneously tried to make my wife responsible for what Mrs. Bonnie Kendall, the mother of Miss R.R., was doing to me, since it was Martha Elena the one that sent Miss R.R. to ride with me in my van. Eventually, we both contributed with our actions and omissions to end up our relationship. But before that took place, we did try to save the marriage.
One day, the developer of Winston Park, which is where we had a beautiful house at that time, invited us to visit their new housing development in Orlando, called Buenaventura, where a similar house as ours, was selling for only $40,000.00. We decided to sell our house for $100,000.00, pay of the $46,000.00 mortgage, and move to Buenaventura to buy a new house cash.
Had we done that, most likely the marriage could have been saved. Had we done that; I wouldn’t be sitting in prison today serving six life sentences for crimes that never existed. But. Acting without Martha’s approval; without common sense; without reason; without awareness, I exercised my constitutional rights to act like a fool and coerced my wife to remain in Miami; and into buying a house in Country Walk for about $150,000.00 (Including closing cost), still under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Precinct Metro Police Department and Sergeant Raymond J. Haar, Sr.
I must have been having mental issues. I must have had lost my awareness of reality when I agreed to pay $1,408.00 every month just for my mortgage. In Winston Park my monthly mortgage payment was only $416.00 under a fixed 8% interest. To buy the house in Country Walk I accepted an initial fixed interest of 10.5 %, knowing that it had to go down again and then I could refinance. But still, the original idea to have a nice house fully paid for, was the way to go. I was only about 33 years old. Originally, the main objective was to move far away from Sgt. Ray Haar, Sr., and his family, that had caused me and my family so much harm.
But instead, I acted with undiluted stupidity and decided to stay in Miami Dade County, which gave them the opportunity to contribute to get me convicted a second time, with new and equally false allegations from other law enforcement agents, which had become my new neighbors in Country Walk. I assume full responsibility for my lack of intelligence and logical thinking. I apologize to my ex-wife Martha Elena; to my son Noel; and to my family. I cannot keep my tears inside as I write this, because the memories of that experience are still very painful.
TO BE CONTINUE.
Frank Fuster, AKA in prison as Paco.
Frank, see my article in The Phoenix Scholar, University of Phoenix