Rhett Fuller goes before Attorney General yet again in the fight against his extradition
Rhett Fuller
Rhett Fuller has been fighting extradition to the US for fifteen years. He is wanted there for his alleged involvement in a 1998 murder in North Miami Beach. On July twenty-fourth, Fuller appeared before Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington, who has the final say on whether he stays or goes. The decision was delayed at that time, as Elrington asked for more evidence. Fuller has a daughter who is autistic, and he was asked to provide supporting material on how his extradition would affect her. This morning, Fuller appeared before Minister Elrington again, with his attorney Eamon Courtenay. Today his wife, Ann Marie, explained the thrust of their submissions, as requested by the Minister.
Ann Marie Fuller, Wife of Rhett Fuller
“He just asked Eamon to give the final submissions as it relates to the documents he requested. He had asked for some specialists from the US to comment on the status of my youngest daughter and so we gave those submissions as per his request.”
Reporter
“Can you give us an idea of what was in those submissions? I know that this must be a terrible hardship for your family…”
Ann Marie Fuller
Ann Marie Fuller
“Well basically the approach that our side is trying to take is the approach of oppression, and we were only able to establish that on the grounds of how it would impact the family, how his extradition would impact the family, especially because we have a special needs child in our family and that means that we need more help, not less, and definitely having only one parent would mean that that child would definitely be impacted in a negative way so that is what he was asking for…more concrete evidence, and so we got the assistance from the person who had originally diagnosed her in Miami to give her expert opinion, and she had said that it would definitely impact the child’s life in a negative way because it would mean that I would become the main breadwinner, as I have struggled to be for the past two years and it means that I am not there with her as I should be, and that I’m not able to get her the help and focus on her in the way that I would need to be focusing on her special needs.”
Reporter
“While the main thrust of the submissions must be about your daughter, this must be having an impact on your entire family.”
Ann Marie Fuller
“Well it’s an impact on all of us. It’s very stressful. I am the person that everybody is entirely dependent on, including my husband. So I have to provide everything for him. I have to do his laundry. I have to give him money. I have to also be there as a mother for my kids. I have to still find the energy to be nurturing to them after a full day’s work. I have to be on top of the situation at our business which has shrunk significantly since he has been gone. We just had to make a lot of stressful changes…my middle son has had to go into anger management therapy with Ms. Tina Cuellar and it’s just been very, very stressful. My daughter has not been able to get any additional therapy. I used to travel to Orange Walk where there was a speech therapist and take her every week to get some type of assistance. I’m not able to do anything like that anymore.”
According to Ann Marie Fuller, Minister Elrington has promised to try his best to return a decision by the end of the year.
