The male nurse who served eight years in a Monaco prison for killing billionaire Edmond Safra began battling in court to see his children yesterday – and says he will use his ex-wife’s own words to make his case.
Standing before a Dutchess County judge, Ted Maher and his ex-wife, Heidi, came face to face for the first time since he was locked up for setting a 1999 fire that killed the mogul – after a trial he now claims was fixed.
Heidi Maher, who lives in Dutchess County, has a restraining order that keeps her ex from coming anywhere near her or their three kids.
But Ted Maher hopes a gushing 1999 letter written by Heidi on his behalf will convince the judge to permit visitation.
“I found out about Mr. Safra’s death on the news . . . I do not believe Ted did this,” she wrote, according to the letter released to the press by her ex-husband yesterday.
The letter calls him a “caring, loving, sensitive man” whose “family is his world” and who “has never had a grudge/disagreement with a co-worker. He is loved by everyone.”
After yesterday’s hearing in Poughkeepsie – at which Judge Damien J. Amodeo put off any visitation ruling until at least Sept. 14 – Heidi declined to comment.
No representative of Heidi’s could confirm the authenticity of the letter, dated Dec. 30, 1999.
