Boyfriend let me take fall, woman testifies

Boca bicyclist was killed in crash

Raising her voice at times, Bianca Fichtel testified Tuesday she took the wheel of her Ford F-150 pickup a few minutes after her ex-boyfriend struck and killed a Boca Raton bicyclist.

“He just kept on saying he couldn’t go back, his license was suspended,” Fichtel said, describing how she demanded to switch seats with Paul Maida Jr., and returned to the crash scene on Yamato Road west of Interstate 95. “Iwanted to go back to see if everything was OK.”

For over a year, she was accused in the crash and charged with DUI manslaughter in the death of George Morreale, 65.

But Fichtel, 27, was cleared and became the star witness in Maida’s trial. The 32-year-old West Boca man is now accused as the impaired driver in the April 6, 2014, wreck.

Fichtel said she was looking downat her phone and heard a “loud thud,” but Maida insisted he just “hit a curb or something.” She said she looked at her smashed hood and yelled at Maida to turn around, but he refused.

She recalled the horror of seeing Morreale dying on the pavement and started “hysteri--

cally crying” and repeating over and over that she wished she was dead and not the bicyclist.

Maida told the cops he was in the passenger seat.

The jury earlier viewed photographs of Morreale’s body on the pavement, his crumpled Schwinn, and the dented pickup truck.

Fichtel, who at the time told an officer she was the driver, said she was taken from the scene to a mental hospital for a 24-hour observation and released.

But then came more anguish: getting arrested and fighting with Maida over his refusal to take responsibility, she said.

“He wasn’t doing anything to tell the truth and change the situation at all,” Fichtel told the jury, adding that her healthwas deteriorating over the stress and being stuckonhousearrest.

“She took the fall for her boyfriend,” prosecutor Amy Berkman said in her opening statement. “It destroyed their relationship.”

But privately, in thousands of emails, Maida expressed his love for her and pledged to go to authorities and “get you out of this,” Fichtel said of a written dialogue that went on for more than six months.

A year after the crash,

Fichtel brought samples of the emails to a meeting with the lead investigator, Boca Raton Police Officer Adam Reisner and Assistant State Attorney Laura Laurie.

She also gave a sworn statement putting her exboyfriend in the driver’s seat.

After authorities obtained the emails from Maida’s Gmail account, they dropped the charges against Fichtelandarrested Maida.

Jurors are expected to see samples of the emails when the trial resumes today with Fichtel back on the witness stand for more questions from the prosecutor and then defense attorneyRobertResnick.

In his opening statement, Resnick said the emails are a result of Fichtel’s attempt to “manipulate” Maida with comments such as, “You’re the man, why don’t you take care of this?”

The lawyer described his client as being intellectually inferior to Fichtel, because she got A grades in college classes whileMaida never went beyond high school and then failed to hold downa job as a security guard.

Resnick agreed with prosecutors who told the jurors the case will turn on who they believe was the driver. But he added there really is no one at fault because the crash happened on a busy stretch of the road at the I-95 interchange.

“It was a horrible, horrible accident,” the lawyer said, whileMorreale’s widow, son and daughter listened from their seats in the courtroom. “We know that not every accident is a crime.”

TheMorreale family has filed a wrongful-death civil lawsuit againstMaida.

In criminal court, he is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death; DUI manslaughter; driving while license canceled, suspended or revoked causing serious bodily injury; and false report of a crime.

The defense said there is no blood-alcohol evidence in the case, so it’s “impossible to just look at someone” andconclude a person was impaired.

But OfficerReisner testified thatMaida“seemedincoherent” at the crash scene and couldn’t stand unassisted.

“Hewas unsteady on his feet,” he said. “Hewas basically out of it.”

Circuit Judge Charles Burton told the jury he expects deliberations to begin by Thursday.