A man who served eight years for the arson murder of billionaire banker Edmond Safra in Monaco – but was freed because his trial may have been rigged – returned to New York in a bittersweet homecoming yesterday.
“Eight years for nothing,” said private duty nurse Ted Maher, 49, who was freed in the 1999 deaths of Safra and Vivienne Torrente, another nurse who cared for the ailing Safra in his fabulous penthouse in Monaco.
“Your friends are going to abandon you. They leave you for dead.
“That was the worst part – being left for dead,” the former Green Beret told The Post, which broke the story of his release from prison after a French judge claimed Maher’s trial was fixed.
Monaco officials are now investigating the circumstances surrounding the December 2002 murder trial.
“I fought for the truth,” Maher said. “I just want to be free. I never gave up. I’ve picked up a cologne in France. You know what it’s called? ‘Escape.’ ”
Maher said his military training helped him survive.
“My background as a Green Beret gave me the strength mentally,” he said.
Maher was greeted at JFK Airport by his sister, Tammy Evans, 46, and mother, Elaine Maher. He was immediately hit with court papers from former wife Heidi, who has since remarried and got an order of protection against her ex.
“Nice back-to-America present,” he complained.
Maher said he felt particularly bitter about losing his family, including sons Christopher, who turns 18 today, and Ian, 12, and daughter Amber, 10.
He said he sent his then-wife the $225,000 annual salary he’d been making as Safra’s nurse, and gave her unlimited power of attorney.
Maher’s Southampton, L.I., lawyer, Michael Griffith, said he was exploring whether Maher could sue Monaco for wrongful incarceration.
Griffith reserved particular venom for Maher’s ex. “She’s a human cockroach,” he said, claiming she never gave Maher’s kids the letters he’d written them in his years away.
Efforts to reach the former Heidi Maher were not successful. A call to Safra’s son and wife, Lily, was not returned.
For now, Maher said, he was thinking short-term.
“My nursing license is clean,” he said. “I can work in any hospital in the nation.”
His sister and mom were just happy to have him home again.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” Evans said as she clutched a copy of The Post that broke the story of her brother’s release. “I’ve spoken to my brother once in the last four years, and that was three weeks ago to tell me” he was being freed.
“His life was ruined.”
Additional reporting by Cathy Burke